Today, she is a world champion and Winter Olympic gold medallist training at Wanaka's Snow Farm.
And she is hot favourite to win today's 42km cross-country marathon, the premier event in the Snow Farm's Merino Muster.
Nursing a hand she injured during one of the three events she won last weekend, the Polish- and Russian-speaking Kowalezyk described to the Otago Daily Times in halting English the trauma she went through after testing positive for the steroid dexamethasone at an under-23 world championship event in Germany in January 2005.
"For me, it was like my life was gone.
"It was very bad for me."
Kowalezyk was disqualified from competing for two years because the drug, while allowed "out of competition", was prohibited "in competition".
Her biographical information says she returned to her home town of Kasina Wielka and spent several days crying in her room.
But instead of quietly disappearing from the sport, Kowalezyk decided to fight the FIS doping panel decision.
And seven months after her disqualification began, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ended it, accepting she did not use the substance to enhance her performance but had been prescribed it by her doctor for an achilles injury.
She said her doctor had not been aware of the implications of using the drug.
Kowalezyk is now at the top of her game with 18 international titles including world championship wins and, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, she beat her fiercest rival Marit Bjorgen, of Norway, by 0.3s to win gold in the women's 30km classic.
She also won a silver and a bronze.
And in her home country, where cross-country skiing is not a major sport, she has been recognised three times as athlete of the year.
She will stay in Wanaka until the end of the month and, aside from training six hours a day, occasionally does a little shopping.
One of her major goals is to compete at the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Asked by the ODT what made her that little bit better than her nearest rivals, Kowalezyk tapped her head lightly with her finger in the internationally recognised gesture for mental toughness.
