Croatia's high jump world champion Blanka Vlasic and skier Ivica Kostelic were named the country's top athletes of the year for 2009 by a national newspaper Sunday. Vlasic retained her world crown at the world athletics championships in Berlin in August while Kostelic finished a career-best fourth overall in the 2009 World Cup standings.
The 30-year-old earlier this month underwent an operation on his right knee after sustaining injury during the World Cup super-combined event in Val d'Isere, France.
Kostelic, whose hugely successful sister Janica is now retired, won a slalom world title in 2003 and will be one of the medal contenders for the supercombined during the Vancouver Games being held February 12-28.