Justyna Maria Kowalczyk-Tekieli (Polish: ; born 19 January 1983) is a Polish cross-country skier who has been competing since 2000. Kowalczyk is a double Olympic Champion and a double World Champion. She is also the only skier to win the Tour de Ski four times in a row and one of two female skiers (the other being Finn Marjo Matikainen) to win the FIS Cross-Country World Cup three times in a row. Kowalczyk holds the all-time record for wins in the Tour de Ski with 14, and had 29 podiums in total. She also won the

Vasaloppet (Swedish language, Swedish for 'the Vasa race') is an annual long distance cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country ski race held on the first Sunday of March. The course starts in the village of :sv:Berga, Malung-Sälens kommun, Berga, jus ...

women's edition in 2015. She was voted the Polish Sports Personality of the Year a record five times. She is a member of cross country ski department of AZS AWF Katowice and is coached by Aleksander Wierietielny.

Career

Raised in the mountainous Goral village of Kasina Wielka, Southern Poland, Kowalczyk took up cross country skiing at the age of 10. She then competed in her first FIS World Cup race at Cogne (ITA) in December 2001. In 2002 she came second in the individual sprint at the World Junior Championships. She finished 31st in the individual sprint at the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Kowalczyk's first World Cup Victory was the 10 km classic race at Otepää on 27 January 2007. Kowalczyk was 3rd overall in the 2007 World Cup. She won the overall 2008–09 Cross-Country Skiing World Cup. On 24 March 2009, Kowalczyk was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. At the 2009 world championships in

Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...

, 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. On 27 February 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 17 February 2010, and bronze in the 15 km pursuit on 19 February 2010. Kowalczyk won the 10 km classical race in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi on a broken foot. She did not finish 30 km freestyle race. On 22 February 2015 won bronze medal of the World Championship 2015 in

team sprint The team sprint (also sometimes known as the Olympic sprint) is a track cycling event. Despite its name, it is not a conventional cycling sprint event – it is a three-rider team time trial held over three laps of a velodrome. The riders use a ...

with Sylwia Jaśkowiec in

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabit ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. She won the

ski marathon in 2015 with a time of 4:41:02. She also won the Birkebeinerrennet long-distance cross-country ski marathon held annually in Norway in 2017 and 2018.

Education

Kowalczyk graduated from the Jerzy Kukuczka University of Physical Education in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

with an M.A. and a Ph.D. degree in

physical education Physical education is an academic subject taught in schools worldwide, encompassing Primary education, primary, Secondary education, secondary, and sometimes tertiary education. It is often referred to as Phys. Ed. or PE, and in the United Stat ...

in 2014 at the Bronisław Czech University of Physical Education in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, where her dissertation was titled "''The structure and volume of training load cross-country skiing on the background of the evolution of technology gear and different levels of sports''".

2005 Suspension

At the 2005 World Championships, Kowalczyk competed but was subsequently disqualified for taking

dexamethasone Dexamethasone is a fluorinated glucocorticoid medication used to treat rheumatic problems, a number of skin diseases, severe allergies, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), croup, brain swelling, eye pain following eye su ...

at the Under23 (U23) OPA (Alpine Nations) Intercontinental Cup competition in Oberstdorf, Germany back on 23 January 2005. Dexamethasone 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 13 June 2005, the FIS Doping Panel issued a two-year suspension (23 January 2005 – 22 January 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 The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; , AMA) is an international organization co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against d ...

(WADA) 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. Kowalczyk appealed to the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; , TAS) is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its courts are located in New York City, Sy ...

(CAS) which held that Kowalczyk did not use Dexamethasone 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 Dexamethasone 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.

Criticism of anti-asthma drugs

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."Cross-Country Skiing: Kowalczyk claims ladies 30 km gold".
– 27 February 2010 Vancouver2010.com (AFP) article accessed 28 February 2010. The drug is allowed by FIS if prescribed by an Olympic team physician. Kowalczyk later apologized for the timing of her statements, since the Games were still going on at the time. The asthma medication Marit Bjørgen was using, Symbicort, has since been removed from WADA's list of banned substances.

Personal life

She has three elder siblings: sisters Ilona and Wioletta and brother Tomasz. In 2014, she revealed in an interview with ''

Gazeta Wyborcza (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish nationwide daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It was launched on 8 May 1989 on the basis of the Polish Round Table Agreement and as a press organ of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), t ...

'' that she had a miscarriage and later struggled with depression. In 2020, she married Polish mountaineer Kacper Tekieli with whom she has a son Hugon (born 2021). In May 2023, her husband died in an

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...

Swiss Alps The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...

while descending from the summit of Jungfrau.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

*5 medals – (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

World Championships

* 8 medals – (2 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze)

World Cup

* 9 titles – (4 overall, 4 distance, 1 sprint)

Individual podiums

* 50 victories – (31 , 19 ) * 104 podiums – (64 , 40 )

Team podiums

* 1 podium – (1 )

References

External links

June 13, 2005 FIS Doping Control statement on Kowalczyk (Digitized version).
– Accessed 30 July 2006
July 13, 2005 FIS Newsflash statement on Kowalczyk's suspension (Digitized version).
– Accessed 30 July 2006
December 14, 2005 FIS Newsflash on her overturned suspension (Digitized version).
– Accessed 30 July 2006
Arbitration CAS 2005/A/918 Kowalczyk v/ FIS, award of 8 December 2005
*

Justyna Kowalczyk Official Site

Unofficial Site in English and Swedish

Olympics profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kowalczyk, Justyna 1983 births Cross-country skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2007 Winter Universiade Cross-country skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Doping cases in cross-country skiing Medalists at the 2007 Winter Universiade Living people People from Limanowa County Polish Gorals Polish female cross-country skiers Polish sportspeople in doping cases Olympic cross-country skiers for Poland Olympic gold medalists for Poland Olympic bronze medalists for Poland Olympic silver medalists for Poland Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Cross-Country World Cup champions Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Skiers from Lesser Poland Voivodeship Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Tour de Ski winners Tour de Ski skiers Winter World University Games medalists in cross-country skiing FISU World University Games gold medalists for Poland 21st-century Polish sportswomen