Veronika Velez-Zuzulová ( Zuzulová; born 15 July 1984) is a retired Slovak alpine ski racer. Born in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, she specialised in the slalom and was the most successful Slovak alpine skier before Petra Vlhová. She was coached by her father Timotej Zuzula and Vladimír Kovár. In April 2012, she married coach Romain Velez and added her

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to her

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becoming Velez-Zuzulová. Velez-Zuzulová started skiing at age 3; at 14 she won the Trofeo Topolino in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, an unofficial children's world championship.

Europa Cup

She started competing in the Europa Cup from the 2000/2001 season, and she took Europa Cup race wins on 21 December 2003, 23 February 2004 and 19 December 2006, and 3rd place on 6 and 22 February 2004.

World Championships

At the 2007 World Championships in

Åre Åre () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpe ...

, Sweden, she scored 9th place in

super combined Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. The event format has changed within the last 30 years. A traditional combined competition is a two-day event consisting of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom; each discipline takes place on a s ...

, 13th place in slalom and 21st place in

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in Slalom skiing, slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant sl ...

. Velez-Zuzulová was part of the Slovakian team which took a surprise silver in the team event at the 2017 World Championships in

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, defeating Germany, Italy and Switzerland before being beaten by France in the final on time by eight hundredths of a second after a 2-2 tie.

World Cup

Velez-Zuzulová made her World Cup debut in a giant slalom at

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, Austria, on 28 October

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. In November 2002, she started competing in slalom. Her first major win was in 2002 when she became the World Junior Champion. Her first run in

was in 2006. Across her career, Velez-Zuzulová took 30 World Cup podiums with five victories, all in slalom (or parallel slalom). Her best results in the World Cup season standings came in the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

seasons, when she finished second in the slalom discipline. In the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

season, she finished third in slalom and 12th overall; she also finished third in slalom in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. She retired from competition in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, with her final World Cup start being in a slalom in Ofterschwang.

Season results

*Standings through 4 February 2018

Race podiums

* 5 wins – (4 SL, 1 CE) * 30 podiums – (27 SL, 3 CE)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velez-Zuzulova, Veronika 1984 births Living people Slovak female alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers for Slovakia Sportspeople from Bratislava Francophone people