Carolina Kostner

Carolina Kostner (born 8 February 1987) is an Italian figure skating coach and former competitive skater. She is the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2012 World champion, a five-time European champion (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013), and the 2011 Grand Prix Final champion. She is also a medalist at five other World Championships (2005, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014), six other European Championships (2006, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018), and three other Grand Prix Finals (2007, 2008, 2010), the 2003 World Junior bronze medalist, and a nine-time Italian national champion. Kostner has won 11 medals at the European championships, most recently in 2018, and is the most decorated singles skater in the history of that competition.

Personal life

Carolina Kostner was born in the South Tyrolean Bolzano and lives in Urtijëi (Ortisei/St. Ulrich). She is one of three children of Patrizia, a nationally ranked figure skater in the 1970s and later a geometric arts teacher, and Erwin, who played ice hockey for the Italian national team at the World Championships and Olympic Games before becoming an ice hockey coach. One of her grandfathers was the director of the Art Academy in her hometown. She has two brothers, one year older Martin and three years younger Simon Kostner, who plays ice hockey for Ritten Sport in Ritten, Italy. Kostner is the cousin and goddaughter of Isolde Kostner, a silver medalist in alpine skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Kostner's native language is Ladin, and she is also fluent in German, Italian, English and French. In autumn 2007, she enrolled at the University of Turin. She studied art history mainly through correspondence courses. During her suspension from competition, she attended a classical ballet school.

Kostner was formerly in a relationship with former Olympic race walking champion Alex Schwazer.