Carolina Kostner

She is one of three children of Patrizia, a nationally ranked figure skater in the 1970s and later a geometric arts teacher, and Erwin, who played ice hockey for the Italian national team at the World Championships and Olympic Games before becoming an ice hockey coach.

One of her grandfathers was the director of the Art Academy in her hometown.

She has two brothers, one year older Martin and three years younger Simon Kostner, who plays ice hockey for Ritten Sport in Ritten, Italy.

Carolina Kostner (born 8 February 1987) is an Italian figure skater.

When a landslide destroyed her home rink in 2001, Kostner chose to work with Michael Huth in Oberstdorf, Germany – about a four-hour drive from her home in Bolzano.

Kostner is the cousin and goddaughter of Isolde Kostner, a silver medalist in alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Kostner's native language is Ladin, and she is also fluent in German, Italian, English, and French.

Making her senior international debut, Kostner won gold at two September events, the 2002 Nebelhorn Trophy and 2002 Ondrej Nepela Memorial.

In January, she finished fourth at the 2003 European Championships in Malmö, Sweden.

In March, she became the first Italian skater to medal at Junior Worlds.

Ranked first in her qualifying group, first in the short program, and fifth in the free skate, she took bronze at the 2003 World Junior Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

In the 2003–2004 season, Kostner finished 5th at the 2004 European Championships and at the 2004 World Championships.

She is also a medalist at five other World Championships (2005, 2008, 2011, 2013–14), six other European Championships (2006, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018), and three other Grand Prix Finals (2007, 2008, 2010), the 2003 World Junior bronze medalist, and a nine-time Italian national champion.

Kostner finished 7th at the 2005 European Championships before beating Michelle Kwan for the bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships in Moscow.

Kostner won her first European medal in 2006, and was chosen to be flag bearer for the host Italian team during the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

At the Olympics, she placed 9th.

The next month, at the 2006 World Championships, she placed 12th.

Kostner missed the 2006–2007 Grand Prix season due to injury.

In autumn 2007, she enrolled at the University of Turin.

She studied art history mainly through correspondence courses.

During her suspension from competition, she attended a classical ballet school.

Kostner was formerly in a relationship with former Olympic race walking champion Alex Schwazer.

Kostner began learning to skate as a four-year-old.

She won the Italian national title and went on to win her first European title at the 2007 European Championships.

She set a new personal best to finish third in the short program at the 2007 Worlds but faltered in the long program and finished 6th overall.

Kostner medaled at both her Grand Prix events and went to the Grand Prix Final for the first time.

At that event, she won the bronze medal.

She won her second European title at the 2008 Europeans after winning the short program and placing second in the free skate.

At the 2008 Worlds, Kostner won the short program and placed third in the free skate, winning the silver medal overall.

Kostner finished off the podium at her first Grand Prix event, 2008 Skate Canada, lost her European title to Laura Lepistö, and finished 12th at the 2009 World Championships after a long program in which she failed to land a single clean triple.

After eight years of training with coach Michael Huth, Kostner made a coaching change in the summer of 2009, relocating to El Segundo, California to work with Frank Carroll and Christa Fassi, the widow of the late Carlo Fassi.

Kostner placed 6th at both of her Grand Prix events, the 2009 Trophée Eric Bompard and the 2009 Cup of China.

In the middle of the season, she left Carroll but continued training with Christa Fassi, and in Pinerolo, Italy with Edoardo De Bernardis.

In December 2009, Kostner lost her national title to Valentina Marchei, which threatened her spot on the Italian team for the Vancouver Games, but the following month she rebounded to win gold at the 2010 European Championships, held in Tallinn, Estonia.

As a result, Italy qualified only one ladies spot for the 2010 Olympics.

At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, she finished 16th overall after a disastrous 19th place free skate.

She said in 2011, "Half of my family on my dad's side is in sports, and my mother's side is more involved in arts. For me, figure skating was a good mix of the two."

She is the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2012 World champion, a five-time European champion (2007–2008, 2010, 2012–2013), and the 2011 Grand Prix Final champion.

Kostner has won 11 medals at the European championships, most recently in 2018, and is the most decorated singles skater in the history of that competition.

Carolina Kostner was born in Bolzano, Italy, and lives in Urtijëi (Ortisei/St. Ulrich).