Major honours
Croatia, a country with almost no ski culture, federation funding or World Cup-suitable mountains, produced alpine skiing's greatest championship-racing siblings. Janica Kostelic trained across Europe out of a car with her father as coach, and at Salt Lake City 2002 won giant slalom, combined and slalom gold plus super-G silver. Her four medals at a single Games is the most in alpine history, and she defended her combined title at Turin 2006 to reach four Olympic golds. Her brother Ivica Kostelic won Olympic silver at four consecutive Games from 2002 to 2014, the most Olympic silver medals in alpine skiing history. The siblings built world-class careers on almost no national support and pure family determination, proving a small nation can reach the top of the sport through individual dedication alone.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
Janica Kostelic's solo battle against the deep Austrian and Swiss rosters in the early 2000s remains the sport's most dramatic underdog story.