“A global yet Croatian child prodigy,” “the new Janica Kostelic” –these are just some of the accolades circulating on social media for Zrinka Ljutic, the breakout star of this season’s Alpine Ski World Cup.
In Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, the 20-year-old from Zagreb claimed her second consecutive slalom victory on Sunday, taking the lead in the World Cup slalom standings with 309 points and making headlines across European media.
Coincidence in the championship formula
Ljutic is also leading the overall World Cup standings with 456 points. Just nine days ago, she achieved a historic milestone for Croatian alpine skiing.
By winning the slalom in Semmering, Austria, she became the first Croatian woman to triumph in the World Cup in 18 years, following Janica Kostelic‘s last victory in 2006.
She completed the coincidence in the championship formula on Sunday, which happened to be Janica‘s 43rd birthday, dedicating her gold in Kranjska Gora to Kostelic herself.
“I dedicate this win to Janica, my skiing role model, and wish her a happy birthday,” said the super-talented Ljutic, who has stood on the World Cup podium six times in technical disciplines, including slalom and giant slalom.
The number “2” brought her great fortune, as she won in both Austria and Slovenia wearing bib number “2.”
This season, the young skier from Zagreb has earned 150.000 eurosin the elite skiing competition.
A crucial financial boost
Like many young, talented athletes in the Western Balkans, she faced significant financial challenges funding her competitions and training just a few years ago. During the height of the COVID-19pandemic, she reached out to the Marin Cilic Foundation, established by the Croatian tennis star born in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“During lockdown, my dad, brothers Tvrtko and Hrvoje, my sister Dora, and I stayed in Austria. When the ski lifts closed, we trained slalom by climbing uphill. Every morning at six, we’d climb with poles, set up, and maintain the course ourselves. At that time, we were the only ones training,” Ljutic wrote in her application to the foundation, as reported by Croatian media.
This impressed Cilic, and she was granted a scholarship.
The scholarship marked a turning point, perhaps the critical financial boost in Ljutic‘s athletic development. By then, she had already achieved significant success in prestigious International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) competitions in the under-14 and under-16 categories.
In 2020, the Croatian Olympic Committee awarded her the prize for the most promising athlete in the country.
She skyrocketed to global prominence at just 18 years old, becoming the world junior slalom champion in March 2022 in Panorama, Canada, in the under-21 category.
Alongside her gold medal, she also claimed bronze in the giant slalom at the same event, earning an invitation from the FIS to the senior World Cup finals in Meribel, France. There, she stunned the world by finishing fifth in slalom on March 19th, 2022.
The Croatian national champion has also excelled in the European Cup.
A connection to BiH
Her coach is her father, Amir, a marine engineer from Banja Luka, BiH. Once a junior football player for Dinamo Zagreb, Amir left behind both his sports career and professional engineering pursuits to focus on his children’s athletic development.
Zrinka is the second oldest of four siblings in the Ljutic family. She cites her father, mother Martina (an English and German teacher), sister Dora, and brothers Tvrtko and Hrvoje as her biggest supporters.
“I’m in love and happy. All I’ll say is it’s with a Swedish skier,” Zrinka Ljutic, the standout name in alpine skiing today, shared, revealing that even in the cold winter months, she is flourishing both on and off the slopes, AA writes.
Photo: Index.hr/Profimedia
