Justyna Kowalczyk 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 At the 2009 world championships in Liberec, Kowalczyk won two gold medals, one in the women's pursuit (7.5 km classical 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, 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 Ziemianska z klasy 1 TI