Justyna Justyna KowalczykKowalczyk
My sporting hero
My sporting hero is Justyna Kowalczyk, an running
on skis. She won three gold medals – first at the 2009
in Liberec, second at the 2009 in Liberec, and twice
at the 2010 in Vancouver. She is one of the most successful cross country skiers of all time, being the only skier in the history with
victories in all the most important sport events, so called
"The Big Crown": Olympic Games, World Championships,
World Cup and Tour de Ski.
Justyna was born in 1983 in Limanowa.
She was interested in winter sports in elementary school .
Kowalczyk finished second in the individual sprint
at the 2003 World Junior Championships. She finished 31st in the individual sprint event at the 2003 FIS Nordic
World Ski Championships. Recently in Canmore, Canada, on Jan 22, 2008, Justyna Kowalczyk
won the race for her second World Cup triumph. She followed
in Canmore with two more bronze medals in
the same World Cup event. Justyna was 3rd in the 2007
World Cup.
She has also won eighteen individual events
at various distances and levels since 2001.
At the 2009 world championships in Liberec, Kowalczyk won two
gold medals, one in the women's pursuit (7.5 km classical + 7.5 km free technique), and another one in the 30 km mass start. She also
secured a bronze medal in the 10 km classical event.She won the overall 2008–09
Cross-Country Skiing World Cup.On March 24, 2009, Kowalczyk
was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
On February 27, 2010, Kowalczyk beat Norway's Marit Bjørgen by 0.3 seconds to win the gold medal in the women's
30 km classical event in the 2010 Winter Olympics. She
posted a time of one hour, 30 minutes, 33.7 seconds. She earned two more medals in
Vancouver, taking silver behind Bjørgen in the individual sprint classic on February 17, 2010,
and bronze in the 15 km pursuit on February 19, 2010.
Justyna Kowalczyk is the only cross-country skier
in history to have won all the "Big Crown": Olympic Games (2010, Vancouver, 30 km), World Championship (2009,
Liberec, 15 km pursuit and 30 km), World Cup (2008/2009, 2009/2010
and 2010/2011) and Tour de Ski (2009/2010, 2010/2011 and
2011/2012).
At the 2005 World Championships, Justyna
competed but was subsequently disqualified for taking dexamethasone at the
Under23 (U23) OPA (Alpine Nations)
Intercontinental Cup competition
in Oberstdorf, Germany back on January 23, 2005.
Dexamethason is a substance that is allowed Out-of-
Competition but prohibited In-Competition.
It acts as an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant.
Kowalczyk used the substance to alleviate an Achilles tendon
condition.
On June 13, 2005, the FIS Doping Panel issued
a two-year suspension (January 23, 2005 – January 22, 2007) for Kowalczyk. In late June
2005 FIS determined that since dexamethasone
was a glucocorticosteroid, it was classified as a specified substance on the World Anti-
Doping Agency list of prohibited substances, and
therefore the period of ineligibility for the first violation is at a maximum,
one year's ineligibility. The FIS Doping Panel therefore
reduced the suspension to one year.
Justyna Kowalczyk appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which held that
Kowalczyk did not use Dexamethason to enhance her sport performance. However, she acted negligently, but the
measure of the negligence did not justify a one year term
of ineligibility. According to CAS, a reduced period of ineligibility ending 8
December 2005 (the day of the hearing)
provided the fair and proportionate measure of
sanction.
CAS criticised the FIS Doping Panel that their decision
excluded any consideration of Kowalczyk's defence that she did not use the substance to
enhance her sport performance. According to CAS,
Kowalczyk had disclosed and substantiated her defence that
Dexamethason was not intended to enhance
performance. She had submitted corresponding
medical certifications to the FIS Doping Panel
as proof of use in alleviating an Achilles tendon condition. Upon
Kowalczyk's prima facie showing that her use of the substance was for medical
reasons, the burden of proof shifted to
FIS to prove the contrary.
Kowalczyk criticized Marit Bjørgen and other competitors during the Olympic Games in 2010 for using anti-asthma
drugs. Bjørgen won five medals in the Olympics, three of them
gold. The drug is allowed by FIS if prescribed by an Olympic
team physician. Justyna later apologized for the timing of her
statements, since the Games were still
going on at the time.
Justyna Kowalczyk is my sporting hero,
because she is strong, talented,
hardworking, stubborn and intelligent woman.
The End
Wykonala Joanna Ziemianskaz klasy 1 TI
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