Olympics: Kostelic wins Croatia's first medal

Janica Kostelic captured the women's combined event to give Croatia their first medal in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Kostelic's brother, Ivica, is one of the top contenders in the men's slalom later in the Salt Lake games.

Renate Goetschl of Austria took the silver to add to her downhill bronze and Martina Ertl of Germany, the world champion and silver medallist four years ago at the Nagano games, won the bronze.

Kostelic captured the gold in an aggregate time of two minutes, 43.28 seconds for the two slalom runs and a downhill.

A slalom specialist, Kostelic went into the downhill leg holding a big lead of 1.10 seconds. Although not known for her downhill ability, she padded her winning margin to beat Goetschl, who put in a fast downhill run to jump from fourth to second. She finished in 2:44.77.

Ertl, second after the slalom heats, fell to third at 2:45.16.