The competition was supposed to be part of the 2021 International Ski Federation (FIS) Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships in Zhangjiakou in China but the combined event was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

A multi-venue approach has been adopted by the FIS instead with Idre Fjäll stepping in to crown world champions in both snowboard and ski cross.

Twenty-seven-year-old Samková will be favourite for women's gold after winning her maiden world title in Utah in 2019.

The Sochi 2014 Olympic champion arrives in Sweden as the joint World Cup leader alongside Faye Gulini of the United States, after two races.

She claimed victory last time out in Chiesa in Italy as she bids to win the seasonal crown for the third time.

Gulini, who has finished second in both World Cup races this term, will be another threat, as will Italy's reigning Olympic and World Cup champion Michela Moioli who has won four medals at the World Championships but never the gold.

Britain's Charlotte Bankes, the silver medallist in Utah, will hope to challenge while American veteran Lindsey Jacobellis, a five-time world champion whose last success came in 2017, can never be discounted.

In the men's event, American 29-year-old Mick Dierdorff will defend his title from Utah in a field which will lack French great Pierre Vaultier - the back-to-back and reigning Olympic champion who retired in December.

Austria's reigning overall World Cup champion Alessandro Hämmerle will be looking to claim his first world medal after winning the first race of this season in Chiesa.

But it is Dutch contender Glenn de Blois, the surprise winner of the season's first race, who will head to Sweden as the World Cup leader.

Qualification in both the men's and women's events will take place tomorrow, before the finals on Thursday (February 11).

A mixed team event - won in Utah by Jacobellis and Dierdorff - will then take place on Friday (February 12).

Ski cross action is due to begin in Idre Fjäll on Wednesday (February 10) with other disciplines currently scheduled for March.

Rogla in Slovenia has replaced Zhangjiakou - which is due to be a key venue hub at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics - as the World Championship venue for Alpine snowboard.

Almaty in Kazakhstan is the new location for aerials and moguls, with no venue for halfpipe, slopestyle and big air yet confirmed.