A NEW ERA UNFOLDS for Carolina Kostner
For more than 15 years, Carolina Kostner has been one of the world’s most beloved skaters.
The Italian star hit the headlines in 2005 when she captured her first World medal (bronze). In the ensuing decade, Kostner would go on to win five more World Championship medals and stand on the podium at 11 consecutive European Championships, claiming the top step five times.
In 2012, Kostner made history as the first Italian lady to win a global title. In her four appearances at the Olympic Winter Games between 2006 and 2018, she captured just one medal, bronze in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
Carolina Kostner stepped away from the competitive scene following the 2018 World Championships in Milan, Italy. She performed in a handful of shows that year but ongoing hip problems forced her to take corrective action. In January 2020, she underwent hip surgery and, until the coronavirus pandemic struck, was undergoing rehabilitation at a clinic on the outskirts of Rome.
Kostner said that during her final two seasons of competition, she was constantly suffering from intermittent hip problems. At the end of the 2017-2018 campaign, with the pain now a daily occurrence, she decided to relax her training regimen to see if her hip would heal under a lighter workload. It didn’t. Though she tried conservative therapies and rested, as soon as she resumed training, the pain returned. Eventually, Kostner and her team of doctors decided she needed to have hip surgery.
“It was not a hip replacement, the joint was cleaned. I had a torn labrum (a result of years of hard training) that they stitched up and affixed to the bone so that it remains where it is supposed to be,” Kostner explained. “Also, I have a congenital dislocation of the hip so it was a risk, practically from the very beginning, that I would have problems. Obviously, 25 or 30 years of highly intensive activities
