Šárka Záhrobská

Šárka Záhrobská ( Audio-IPA|Cs-Sarka_Zahrobska.ogg| [ˈʃaːrka ˈzaːɦropskaː] ), born February 11, 1985 in Benecko, Krkonoše Mountains) is a Czech alpine skier, specializing in the slalom event. She won the gold medal in slalom at the 2007 World Championships and narrowly missed a bronze in the super combined, finishing in 4th place by 0.20 seconds. Two years earlier, she won her first medal at the 2005 World Championships, taking the bronze in slalom while placing 5th in the combined. It was the first World Championships medal for a Czech alpine skier. In the 2006 Winter Olympics, she finished 13th in slalom, 19th in the combined, and 27th in Super G; she did not finish the second run of the giant slalom.

On the World Cup circuit, Záhrobská made her debut in 2002–3 and finished 5th in her first race, a knock-out slalom (an experimental format using a series of elimination races) in Sestriere, Italy. She ended the 2003–4 and 2005–6 seasons ranked in the top 10 in slalom, and broke into the top 30 in the overall ranking in 2005–6. She is enjoying her finest season thus far in 2006–7, ranking 4th in combined, 5th in slalom, and 10th in the overall standings before the mid-season break for the World Championships. She also reached the podium in a World Cup race for the first time, finishing 3rd in the slalom on January 4, 2007, at Zagreb, Croatia, and followed it up only 3 days later with 2nd place in the slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. Thus she ended a 21-year long drought for Czech alpine skiers on the World Cup podium, since Olga Charvátová took 2nd place in Bromont, Quebec on March 22, 1986.

Záhrobská has also won numerous medals at the National Alpine Skiing Championships of the Czech Republic and other nations. She has been the National Champion (i.e. gold medalist) at the Czech (2002: slalom; 2003: slalom, giant slalom, and Super G; 2004: slalom, giant slalom; 2005: slalom, giant slalom; 2006: Super G), Slovenian (2006: giant slalom), and Croatian (2006: giant slalom) national championships. Her giant slalom victory at the 2006 Croatian championships was by a narrow 0.15 second margin over Janica Kostelić, who had just beaten Záhrobská for the Super G title the previous day and was coming off one of the most dominant seasons in World Cup skiing history.

Šárka Záhrobská and her brother Petr Záhrobský are the only skiers of the Ski Team Krkonoš. Their personal coach is their father Petr Záhrobský. The team has not had good relationships with the Czech Ski Association. The coach protested especially after the association officials approved the rule that Czech skiers have to prefer their home competitions to the foreign ones, and refused to follow it, stating that Záhrobská needs better rivals to compete with. Šárka Záhrobská also does not prepare with the rest of the Czech representation team, because her father believes it would decelerate her career. [cite web | title=Šárka Záhrobská's profile | language=Czech| work=Idnes.cz | url= http://sport.idnes.cz/jednou-to-urcite-prijde-slibovala-zahrobska-fzy-/lyzovani.asp?c=A070217_224712_lyzovani_ot | accessdate=2007-02-18] [cite web | title=Záhrobský: Our way is good | language=Czech | work=Lidovky.cz | url= http://lidovky.zpravy.cz/zahrobsky-nase-cesta-je-spravna-dnf-/ln_noviny.asp?c=A070117_000132_ln_noviny_sko&klic=217231&mes=070117_0 | accessdate=2007-02-17]

References

External links

*FIS|S=AL|ID=67825
* [http://www.sarkazahrobska.cz/ Official website] (Czech, English)