Eighteen skiing champions, including Croatia's siblings Janica and Ivica Kostelic, will race to mark 50 years of the World Cup.
Zagreb is the only capital hosting a FIS Alpine Ski World Cup race this year and organisers went one step further, preparing a ski slope in the city centre. Last night trucks brought 900 cubic metres of snow to get a 40 cm snow cover.
Slalom gates such as those at the World Cup 50 years ago will be put up at the start, where the slope is 8 m wide, while state of the art gates will be put at the finish, where the slope is 10.5 m wide, whereby organisers want to show how technology changed over the years. Each participant will wear part of the equipment from their time.
The race in downtown Zagreb will be run by the World Cup's first two winners, Jean-Claude Killy and Karl Schranz, as well as Annemarie Moser-Proell, Marc Girardelli, Marcel Hirscher, Alberto Tomba, Andreas Wnzel, Tamara McKinney, Pernilla Wiberg and Tina Maze. Skiers with outstanding careers will also partcipate, including Jure Kosir, Matjaz Vrhovnik, Hans Enn, Bojan Krizaj, Gunther Mader, Marco Buechel, Kristian Ghedina, Thomas Sykora, Spela Pretnar, Urska Hrovat and Alenka Dovzan.
The race in downtown Zagreb will be broadcast live by Austria's ORF, Switzerland's SRF, Sweden's SVT, Eurosport, the BBC and Japan's J Sports.
The slope will stay until January 15, by which time a skiing school for children be organised as part of the FIS "Bring Children to the Snow" campaign.