Maze and Prevc are the winners of a poll of 132 Slovenian sports journalists for the annual awards, which were handed out by the Association of Slovenian Sports Journalists at Ljubljana's Cankarjev dom arts centre.

This is the third Slovenian Athlete of the Year title for the 30-year-old Maze, who had one of the best seasons ever in the World Cup last winter.

Slovenia's best skier of all time broke the overall score record among women, winning eleven races and securing 24 podium finishes (breaking a 13-year-old record), and winning races in all five disciplines.

Maze also won gold in 2013 women's super-G at the 2013 World Ski Championships in Austria's Schladming and added two silvers in super combined and giant slalom.

"This is a very important award, and you need to have really good results to win it. Thank you sincerely for this. Thank you for the support I receive," Maze, who won the award in a landslide, said via a video link from Val d'Isere.

The 21-year-old Peter Prevc has meanwhile earned his first Athlete of the Year title by winning silver in men's large hill and bronze in normal hill at the Nordic World Ski Championships 2013 in Italy's Val di Fiemme in February.

Winning 199 points, Prevc beat Slovenia's NBA player Goran Dragić (155 points) and young cyclist Matej Mohorič (98 points).

"I would like to thank you for the Athlete of the Year award and all journalists who voted for me. They obviously recognised that I invested a lot of hard work in it," Prevc said in a video message screened at the event.

The laureates were also received ahead of the ceremony by President Borut Pahor, who said that athletes had successfully represented Slovenia in 2013, expressing the wish that they keep up the good work next year.

The men's national hockey team has won the title for the third time, this time for qualifying for their first Olympic tournament in history by beating hosts Denmark in February.

The team won 36 votes, narrowly beating the men's national handball team, who won the fourth place at the World Handball Championships in Spain.

Last year individual awards went to hockey player Anže Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings and judoka Urška Žolnir, while the team award went to the legendary rowing duo of Iztok Čop and Luka Špik.