April 30, 2022 - Croatian skier Andrea Komšić has decided to end her professional skiing career at the age of 25.

Andrea Komšić was a promising skier and even at the Olympic Games three times, in 2014, 2018, and 2022, reports 24Sata.

The Zagreb native who was born in Kiseljak (BiH) studied in America and was a university champion while studying international relations and marketing in Denver. Unfortunately, Andrea has struggled with serious injuries throughout her career that seem to have influenced her decision to stop skiing professionally. 

Two years ago, she was the 45th slalom skier in the world, but due to financial reasons, she was not included as a full member of the Croatia national team.

The last two seasons were mostly marked by severe injuries, especially two months before the start of the 2021/2022 season when she broke her foot. After that, she contracted the coronavirus and did not manage to get back into competitive form. 

In addition, Andrea suffered from back problems and could not finish the race at the Beijing Olympics.

"Luck did not anoint me healthily. Until the day of the race, everything was fine, I had self-confidence, but before the race my back stiffened, they had to help me down the track. We tried pills but to no avail. The next day we had a break and a chance to fix up for the slalom, but even that wasn't enough. There were tears in the warm-up, but I said I would start at any cost. And I started and I know I was missing a couple of turns but it didn't work out," Komšić said about what happened in Beijing.

Father Davor, a ski coach and president of the Nordis club in Split, led the careers of Andrea and her brother Dario.

"My dad has always been my coach. I don’t know if I could imagine anyone else in that place. There is nothing he would not do for me. Without him, I certainly would not have been able to reach the World Cup," said Andrea at the age of 16.

Andrea had her first start in the FIS race at the age of 15 in Rovaniemi, Finland in 2012. She started 30 times in the World Cup and never managed to win points.

Apart from Beijing, she represented Croatia at the Sochi Games in 2014, where she was 33rd in slalom and 35th in giant slalom, and four years later in Pyeongchang, she took 31st place in slalom and 32nd in giant slalom. 

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Mach 8, 2022 - Young Croatian skier Zrinka Ljutić is the world junior slalom champion and has become the first Croatian female to win gold at the FIS World Junior Championships!

Croatian skier Zrinka Ljutić drove two great runs in Panorama, Canada. She was the fastest with an advantage after the first, while in the second she had the second-best time, but no direct competitor was close and that was more than enough for the final result of 1:39.88, or 84 hundredths of an advantage over the second-placed German Emma Aicher.

Sweden's Moa Bostroem Mussener won the bronze medal with one second and 21 hundredths behind.

"The feeling is amazing. I couldn't believe it when I reached the finish line, because it was very difficult, the track was damaged, I didn't know if I was fast enough, I didn't know anything, but I fought as hard as I could," said the world champion for Sportske Novosti and described how she felt when she saw that the result good. 

"When I saw that I had 84 hundredths better time, I was so happy."

This is the first Croatian women's gold at the FIS World Junior Championships.

So far, Janica Kostelić, Ana Jelušić and Nika Fleiss have won medals at the junior world competitions for Croatia in the women's category, and Istok Rodeš and Elias Kolega in the men's competition, but of all the Croatian representatives on the podium, only Rodeš has been on the highest step so far after taking gold in 2016 in Sochi.

As the new world junior champion, Ljutić secured the slalom at this season's World Cup final, which will be held in Courchevel, France, from March 16 to 20. The women’s slalom is scheduled for Saturday, March 19. 

The 18-year-old skier is a member of the Croatian Ski Club Žuti Mačak from Zagreb. 

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February 16, 2021 - Croatian skier Filip Zubčić won the silver medal at the World Championships in parallel giant slalom, a discipline in which medals were awarded for the first time.

This is the first World Championship medal for the 28-year-old Croatian skier and the first medal from this competition for Croatian skiing after eight years.

Zubčić knocked out German Stefan Luitz in the last 16, making up 23 hundredths of a second from the first run. In the quarterfinals, he was faster than the American Radamus River. He was 34 hundredths of a second behind on the blue track and 62 on the faster, red track.

In the semifinals, the Croatian skier was a maximum of half a second behind the Swiss skier Loic Meillard after the first run, and then in the second, he was faster by 52 hundredths of a second and advanced to the finals. Meillard eventually won bronze.

In the final, Zubčić fought against the Frenchman Mathieu Faivre, who had the advantage because he skied the second race on the red track. Zubčić helped Faivre because he made a big mistake in the first run and was 23 hundredths of a second behind. In the end, Zubčić was 48 hundredths of a second behind to win the silver medal. 

Apart from Zubčić, Istok Rodeš also competed in the morning qualifiers but failed to reach the round of 16.

"I'm happy and proud after today's race. My first medal at the World Championships. Unfortunately, it's not gold. I was a little angry when I entered the finish line. However, it's a really great result, so I have nothing to regret," said the Zagreb skier, who had the seventh time on the red track in this morning's qualifications, and only the top eight won a place in the final part of the competition.

"After qualifying, I wasn't too happy because I didn't ski very well, and I knew I had to ski a lot better in the final races, which I really did."

Filip thus became the fourth Croatian with a medal at the World Championships after Janica and Ivica Kostelić and Natko Zrnčić-Dima. Zubčić's silver is the tenth medal in total from the World Championships for the Croatian alpine team and the first after the combination silver of Ivica Kostelić from Schladming in 2013.

"The first medal after a long time for Croatia and a nice announcement for the other races that follow. On Friday, we have the giant slalom, on Sunday the slalom, so we are going to the next races with a lot of optimism," concluded Filip. 

Source: Index.hr, Gol.hr

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February 2, 2021 - 17-year-old Croatian skiing sensation Zrinka Ljutić delighted the ski world once again!

HRT reports that the young Croatian skier Zrinka Ljutić achieved her second career victory in the Europa Cup! After celebrating in the slalom held in Zell am See, Austria, at the end of January, she also won the giant slalom run at the Slovenian ski resort Krvavec on Tuesday.

After the first run, the young Croatian skiing sensation was second behind the Norwegian skier Kaja Norbye, but only by about five-hundredths of a second.

Ljutić won with a great performance in the second run with a result of 2:04.28. Only one-hundredth of a second behind was Norwegian skier Marta Monsen, while Norbye came in third, 36 hundredths of a second behind Monsen.

Croatian skier Andrea Komšić took 44th place.

This was the second victory in the Europa Cup for the 17-year-old from Zagreb and the second in a row after she was the best in the slalom in Zell am See on January 26.

In the overall Europa Cup standings, Ljutić broke into second place with 370 points, 102 less than the leading Slovenian skier Andreja Slokar. In third is Italian Lara Della Mea with 341 points.

Maryna Gasienica-Daniel from Poland leads the giant slalom standings with 200 points, while Ljutić is in sixth place with 137 points.

Another giant slalom for the Europa Cup will be held on Krvavec on Wednesday.

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