Ski and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Meet Croatia’s Gen-Z star Zrinka Ljutic

Being an alpine skier from Croatia is “definitely harder, but I think we have some things easier” admits teenage rising star Zrinka Ljutic.

“We come from a country where you have only two mountains where you can ski. Both of them are pretty small and they have just a bit of snow in winter, so we have to travel a lot and, of course, you have to spend a lot more money,” the 18-year-old told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

“It’s been really hard. That's why the whole family had to be involved,” added Ljutic, who had to fund herself until she entered her first FIS events and got into the national team two years ago.

The ski prodigy is one of the hottest young prospects in the sport, especially after winning two medals - including a gold - at the 2022 Junior World Championships in Panorama, Canada, and a fifth place in the slalom at the World Cup Finals in Meribel, France.

She has continued to impress this season with three top-10 finishes.

From Kostelic to Ljutic: The family support in Croatian skiing

“My love for the sport came pretty early. My whole family was involved in skiing," Ljutic recalls. "My father put me on skis when I was two or three years old, and from there we've been just skiing every winter.

“We've been a whole winter in one Austrian small village called Innerkrems. So we would ski there like every day.”

The second of four siblings, ‘Zizi’ – as she’s nicknamed – fell in love with skiing thanks to her father Amir, who was a coach for a Croatian ski club.

“We just followed him and started skiing for the club. And then every year we would just gradually, you know, build on that. So it just came pretty natural, to be honest,” she added.

Janica and Ivica Kostelic are the two big names that spring to mind when the Balkan country is mentioned in the sport.

The former was a four-time Olympic champion and is considered as one of the greatest female skiers in history. The latter was one of the best technical skiers on the men's circuit since the turn of the century.

The support of their father Ante was key for the career of the Kostelics, and it’s not unusual to see family members involved in the coaching of other Croatian skiers like, more recently, Filip Zubcic.

“I think that’s something that you don't see so often in other countries that have everything: they have resources, the snow, the money, like Austrians or Swiss,” Ljutic reflected.

Having your family around you can also present its advantages:

“It's like you almost have a home with you all the time,” she said.

“Wherever you go, you kind of have that person who's really close to you and whom you can open up to and share the moments, you know, good or bad, and they know you the best. So that helps also in the training process and everything, but it just helps you calm down and enjoy more.”

Zrinka Ljutic: Talent and hard work

“They say I was really talented since when I was little. So I knew that I had something maybe a bit more special than the others,” said the junior world champion.

“But it was so interesting to see my older brother [Tvrtko]: he was not so talented, let's say, but he was always so hungry. And then he still made it to the national team.

"To me, it’s been like a relief... to see that it's all possible. My younger brother [Hrvoje] is also skiing, my younger sister [Dora] also. And they're pretty good. So that's really motivating to see."

Sharing a journey with her family helped Zrinka find more confidence: “All that we’ve been through together kind of made us stronger,” she said.

Zrinka Ljutic: My passion for guitar and rock music

Ljutic has plenty of interests away from the slopes.

She said, "I can say that I can talk a lot sometimes and I'm a pretty open person.

“I like a lot of other sports. I enjoy windsurfing, kite surfing, snowboarding, cycling. I also really love music and I play the guitar."

Zrinka confessed she’s a big fan of Foo Fighters singer and musician Dave Grohl: “We play the same kind of stuff like rock punk. But I like also pop and some of the modern stuff, mostly rock.”

Playing the guitar is a passion Ljutic shares with her mentor Ivica Kostelic, while his sister has been another role model to her.

“When I say that I'm from Croatia, everyone is like, ‘Oh, so your favourite athletes must be Ivica and Janica Kostelic,'" she admitted.

“It’s true, but I don't really remember watching them on TV. I was too little when Janica stopped skiing and I only remember Ivica during his last few years. Of course, I heard all the stories and rewatching the footage of them was really inspirational. I have to say, they're my idols.

“But other athletes I admired a lot are Marcel Hirscher, Mikaela Shiffrin, and, of course, Petra Vlhova. But really, Marcel Hischer was my biggest idol in terms of skiing.”

Zrinka Ljutic: The biggest advice from Janica Kostelic

Since making her World Cup debut in 2020, the young Croatian is learning precious lessons from her most experienced colleagues.

One of them is Olympic giant slalom champion Sara Hector: "This summer I was in Ushuaia, in Argentina, training like almost every day with her, Anna Swenn-Larsson and the other Swedish girls and they were so super nice to me," she recalled.

“They welcomed me and my team as one of them and they were cheering me up on my bad days. What all of them were advising is that you just have to enjoy the journey and just have fun. They are a lot older than me and you can really see that they lasted so long just because they really enjoyed the journey so much.

"And that’s similar to what Janica Kostelic has always been telling me, that you should never grow up too fast.”

But Zrinka has time on her side and the potential to write more history for her country.