After two fairly undistinguished performances at the World Junior Championships, which yielded only a single top ten finish, Katja Koren had a spectacular début season at senior level. Skiing with bib number 64 in only her second World Cup race she took advantage of improving piste conditions at a time when the then current leader was already doing her post race victory interviews to a score a stunning victory in the super-giant slalom at Flachau in Austria. She continued this form into the Lillehammer Olympics, although not at super-G, but instead took bronze at the slalom despite never having posted a top 10 finish at the discipline in her brief career. Koren recorded five World Cup podium finishes but never won another race in a career that was ended at age of just 23 by a spinal injury.
Since her retirement she has become active in politics with the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party and has stood for parliament.
Slovenia