At Lienz, where the last women's races of the year 2001 took place by excellent condition, Croatia's Janica Kostelic was awarded the Golden Ski-Serge Lang Trophy at the eve of the slalom competition by Switzerland's Sonja Nef.

The defending Overall World Cup champion was voted the Skier of the Season 2000 / 2001 by members of the AIJS , the International Association of Ski Journalists, which groups the heart of the media traveling on the World Cup tour each winter.

It was founded in the early 1960's by French journalist Serge Lang, future founder of the World Cup in 1966. Lang dies in November 1999 at the age of 79 years and the International Ski Federation along the AIJS decided to give his name to the Golden Ski Award given each season since 1963 to the most remarkable athlete of the past season.

In achieving an incredible comeback a year after her dramatic accident at St Moritz, Janica Kostelic perfectly deserves the Trophy which has been handed to the greatest alpine skiers in the last four decades, including "Giants" as Killy, Stenmark, Moser-Proell, Tomba or Hermann Maier.

Kostelic is the first women to receive the Award since the success of Switzerland's Vreni Schneider back in 1995.

Janica was smiling as she took the price from the hands of Sonja Nef in front of a large crowd attending the presentation.

It's the first Trophy that she won so far during this winter which has been quite disappointing for her. The young Croatian, plagued by a series of injuries and accidents in the last six months, has failed to get back on the podium since her last victory at Garmisch-Partenkirchen almost 11 months ago.