Carolina Kostner, 2012 World Champion in figure skating, is from Ortisei in the Val Gardena
Carolina Kostner was born on February 8, 1987, in Bolzano and lives in Ortisei. She has two brothers, Martin and Simon. Her mother, Patrizia, was a well-known figure skater and later a coach for young talents at the "Ice Club Gardena". Her father, Erwin, on the other hand, is a former ice hockey player who was captain of the national team and later an ice hockey coach.
It is fair to say that Carolina was born to skate. At the age of four, the five-time European champion (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013) and 2012 World champion was already on the ice. Her career began in 2003 when, on her debut at the European Championships, the figure skater finished fourth with a sensational free skate programme. Just two years later, Carolina won the bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow.
Two years after that, she became European champion at the European Championships in Warsaw. She successfully defended this title at the 2008 European Championships in Zagreb and continued her rapid rise. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, she carried the flag for Italy at the opening ceremony.
In 2012, the peak of her career followed at the World Championships in Nice: first place, followed by the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Afterwards, she announced that she would be taking a break. Following a ban that lasted from 2015 to 2016, she placed sixth at the 2017 World Championships in Helsinki and fifth at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Currently, the figure skater supports the "Gen26" project to promote the values of sport among young people, including through social media. It is a project associated with the Milan–Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, some of whose events will also be held in South Tyrol. She sometimes performs in front of an audience in her home valley at "Christmas on Ice" in the Pranives ice stadium in Selva Gardena.
