Despite a full 25 years having passed since the independence of the Republic of Croatia, Croatian sport had never been “assigned” to one of the relevant ministries of the Croatian Government. But now, with a new Law on Organization and Scope of Ministries and other Central State Administration Bodies, sport will for the first benefit from having its own office: the Central Office for Sports.

The most successful Croatian Olympian Janica Kostelić, who has performed at three Winter Olympic Games and who is also the most successful Alpine skier in the history of Winter Olympics, with four gold and two silver medals, was appointed the first Secretary of State for Sports.

Janica is the only athlete who has won four medals (three gold and one silver) at a single Olympic Games (Salt Lake City 2002) and she also competed at the Olympics in Nagano in 1998 and in Turin in 2006, where she won a gold and a silver. She was World Champion in a variety of ski disciplines five times over, the third female skier in history to win the World Cup races in all the five skiing disciplines, as well as the second female skier to win in all the five disciplines in a single season. She has won the title of overall winner at the World Cup three times, and she has seven small Crystal Globes, three in Slalom and four in Combined. She was chosen as Best Croatian Female Athlete of the Year as many as eight times.

The Croatian Central Office for Sport will perform administrative and expert tasks in the field of development and promotion of sports and its role in society, funding of sports programmes and sports development programmes, expert activities, the status of top athletes, national sports development programme, administrative and inspectional supervision of sports activities, preparation and implementation of EU projects, and many other strategically important tasks.

Due to her appointment to the important new position of Secretary of State for Sports, Janica is no longer Assistant Minister of Science, Education and Sports.