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.
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.
Kostner began learning to skate as a four-year-old. She said in 2011, "Half of my family on my dad's side is in sports, and my mother's side is more involved in arts. For me, figure skating was a good mix of the two." When a landslide destroyed her home rink in 2001, Kostner chose to work with Michael Huth in Oberstdorf, Germany – about a four-hour drive from her home in Bolzano.
Making her senior international debut, Kostner won gold at two September events, the 2002 Nebelhorn Trophy and 2002 Ondrej Nepela Memorial. In January, she finished fourth at the 2003 European Championships in Malmö, Sweden. In March, she became the first Italian skater to medal at Junior Worlds. Ranked first in her qualifying group, first in the short program, and fifth in the free skate, she took bronze at the 2003 World Junior Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
In the 2003–2004 season, Kostner finished 5th at the 2004 European Championships and at the 2004 World Championships.
Kostner finished 7th at the 2005 European Championships before beating Michelle Kwan for the bronze medal at the 2005 World Championships in Moscow.
Kostner won her first European medal in 2006, and was chosen to be flag bearer for the host Italian team during the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics. At the Olympics, she placed 9th. The next month, at the 2006 World Championships, she placed 12th.
Kostner missed the 2006–2007 Grand Prix season due to injury. She won the Italian national title and went on to win her first European title at the 2007 European Championships. She set a new personal best to finish third in the short program at the 2007 Worlds but faltered in the long program and finished 6th overall.
Kostner medaled at both her Grand Prix events and went to the Grand Prix Final for the first time. At that event, she won the bronze medal. She won her second European title at the 2008 Europeans after winning the short program and placing second in the free skate. At the 2008 Worlds, Kostner won the short program and placed third in the free skate, winning the silver medal overall.
Kostner finished off the podium at her first Grand Prix event, 2008 Skate Canada, lost her European title to Laura Lepistö, and finished 12th at the 2009 World Championships after a long program in which she failed to land a single clean triple. As a result, Italy qualified only one ladies spot for the 2010 Olympics. After eight years of training with coach Michael Huth, Kostner made a coaching change in the summer of 2009, relocating to El Segundo, California to work with Frank Carroll and Christa Fassi, the widow of the late Carlo Fassi.
Kostner placed 6th at both of her Grand Prix events, the 2009 Trophée Eric Bompard and the 2009 Cup of China. In the middle of the season, she left Carroll but continued training with Christa Fassi, and in Pinerolo, Italy with Edoardo De Bernardis. In December 2009, Kostner lost her national title to Valentina Marchei, which threatened her spot on the Italian team for the Vancouver Games, but the following month she rebounded to win gold at the 2010 European Championships, held in Tallinn, Estonia. At the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, she finished 16th overall after a disastrous 19th place free skate. She was able to finish the season on a better note by placing 6th at the 2010 World Championships, which took place in Turin, near her hometown. In 2011, Kostner said that her bad experience at the Olympics led her to question whether she should continue skating, but that she came to realize that she loved skating.
Feeling homesick being far from home, Kostner returned to Oberstdorf and resumed training with Huth in July 2010.
For the 2010–2011 Grand Prix season, Kostner was assigned to the 2010 NHK Trophy and to the 2010 Skate America. During the season, she had a left knee injury. As a result, she did not practice the flip and lutz until the end of 2010. Nevertheless, she was the bronze medalist at Skate America and won the NHK trophy for the second time in her career. At the 2010–11 Grand Prix Final, Kostner placed second in the short program and fourth in the long, winning the silver medal. She also won the silver medal at the 2011 European Championships, where she had a difficult short program but won the free skate. Between the Europeans and Worlds, she took part in the Gardena Spring Trophy, which she won. At the 2011 Worlds in Moscow, Kostner was sixth in the short program but won the bronze medal after a personal-best free skate. It was her first podium finish at Worlds since 2008 and her third overall; she had won her first Worlds medal, also a bronze, in Moscow six years prior. After winning medals at all of her events in 2010–11, Kostner finished atop the ISU season standings. She underwent physiotherapy and took a two-and-a-half month break from skating, returning to training in mid-July.
As a top-six finisher at the 2011 Worlds, Kostner was allowed to compete in three Grand Prix events in 2011. She elected to do so and was assigned to Skate America, the Cup of China, and the Trophée Eric Bompard. She was the silver medalist at Skate America and won the Cup of China, thus becoming the first skater to qualify for the Grand Prix Final. Kostner then won the silver medal at the Trophée Eric Bompard. In an interview after the event, she stated that her knee was fully recovered and her goal was to include more difficult jumps in the 2012 ISU championships. Kostner posted season's-best scores in the short program (66.43) and the free program (121.05) to win her first-ever gold medal at the Grand Prix Final; her overall score of 187.48 was a new personal best. She is the first Italian single skater to become a Grand Prix Final champion and the second overall after Barbara Fusar-Poli / Maurizio Margaglio, who won the ice dancing title in 2000.
Kostner won the 2012 Europeans, her fourth continental title in ten appearances at the event. Her next competition was the 2012 International Challenge Cup, which she won by more than 26 points.
At the 2012 World Championships in Nice, France, Kostner finished third in the short program and first in the free skate with a new personal best score to take the gold. She became Italy's first World champion in ladies' singles and second in any discipline after Fusar-Poli / Margaglio in 2001. Kostner's final event of the season was the 2012 World Team Trophy, where she competed as part of the Italian team. She set a new personal best score in the short program and placed third in the free skate, finishing 2nd overall.