Win a race, have a surgery. That seems to be the strategy of Ivica Kostelic who has survived about a dozen major injuries in his career. These days he schedules the surgery around the rest of his schedule.

He said he had torn the right meniscus several days prior to the races at Kranjska Gora March 9-10 where he won the closing slalom. “when I tore the meniscus I thought, well now you can fully risk there is nothing left to lose.”

He is scheduled for surgery April 9 so he can regain full flexibility of the knee and repair any damage to the MCL. He will compete at the World Cup finals, have the surgery and hopes to be back on snow in July to prepare for the Olympic season.

Kostelic was the World Cup over all champion in 2011 and won slalom titles in 2011 and 2002. He has three Olympic medals and three World Championship medals.