Chiara Costazza (born May 6, 1984 in Cavalese ) is a former Italian ski racer . She specialized in the disciplines of slalom and giant slalom (although from 2009 she only competed in slalom). She won a World Cup race and was among the top ten 33 times.
In December 1999, Costazza competed in FIS races for the first time, and she celebrated her first victory at this stage in February 2000. From the same month, she played in the European Cup . A year later she became Italian junior slalom champion. She made her debut in the World Cup on December 23, 2002 in the slalom on Lenzerheide , where she finished 43rd. Due to injury, she could not drive a single race in the 2003/04 season. Since the 2004/05 season she has been taking part in World Cup races regularly, and she won her first World Cup points on December 29, 2005 when she was 15th in the slalom in Semmering . With three top 10 results in the 2005/06 season , she qualified for the 2006 Winter Olympics ; she finished eighth in the Olympic slalom race in Sestriere .
With a fifth and a fourth place in the 2006/07 season , Costazza gradually approached the world's best in the slalom discipline. But it also had numerous failures. Despite numerous attempts, she never managed to score points in a giant slalom or in a combination. On November 10, 2007, she achieved her first World Cup podium finish with third place in the slalom on the Reiteralm . Six weeks later, on December 29, 2007, she won the Lienz slalom with two fastest times, ahead of Nicole Hosp and Tanja Poutiainen . It was the first Italian slalom victory since Lara Magoni in March 1997 and also the only World Cup victory of her career. In the further course of the 2007/08 season , four top 10 placements were added, which was enough for seventh place in the discipline ranking.
On November 29, 2008, Costazza fell in the first run of the giant slalom in Aspen and tore the Achilles tendon in his left foot . In the 2008/09 season she could not drive any more races. Since her injury break, she has only started slalom in the World Cup. In the first half of the 2009/10 season the results were unsatisfactory, but she qualified for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver ; there she failed in the second round. In the three following winters she only made it into the points sporadically, as she continued to fail often. In March 2011 she became Italian slalom champion.
After a long dry spell, Costazza managed to finish several times in the top 10 again in the 2013/14 season . At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , she was eliminated in the second run. She was in the top ten two more times in the 2014/15 season , plus she won a European Cup slalom. On the other hand, she did not get past eleventh place in the 2015/16 World Cup . Costazza was able to improve significantly in winter 2016/17 : She was in the top ten five times; including two fifth places at the City Event in Stockholm and at the Squaw Valley slalom . She achieved another four top 10 placements in the 2017/18 season , with sixth place in Flachau being her best result. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , she was fifth in the team competition and ninth in the slalom. In the 2018/19 World Cup winter , Costazza once again achieved two top 10 placements. Ten days after announcing her impending resignation, she contested her last World Cup race on March 16, 2019 in Soldeu .
Italy