The Slovenia team had its best season to date last year, starting with a team victory in Klingenthal and crowning it with two medals by Prevc at the Sochi Olympics.

The 22-year-old Prevc added to the silver and bronze from the Olympics a third place at the Ski Flying World Championships, while he also has three medals from previous World Championships.

He refrained from any big announcements before the season: "I did a good job with training, now I'm only trying to calm down as much as possible...The first competition will show if I'm well prepared."

The team's no. 1 is likely to get strong support this season from 31-year-old Jernej Damjan, who notched up several podium finishes and a victory in Sapporo last year, while notably becoming the overall winner of this year's summer Grand Prix which ended in October.

"I can say I'm feeling much better this year as I did last year," Damjan said, explaining that he was approaching training slightly differently for this winter season after he failed to fully transfer the excellent 2013 summer results to the winter "which is the only thing that counts for me".

Also still on the team is 33-year-old veteran Robert Kranjec, the 2012 ski flying world champion, as are the young talents Juri Tepeš, Jaka Hvala, Matjaž Pungertar, Anže Lanišek and Tomaž Naglič.

One of the architects of the renaissance of Slovenian ski jumping, the A team's head coach Goran Janos, listed among the goals for this season at least three top-three finishes in the World Cup.

At the highlight of the season, the World Championships in Falun, the goal is at least one top-six result, "while of course we are eyeing a medal".