Rudolf Cvetko - this is the name of the fencer who had the honour to be the first Slovene to take part in the Olympic Games. He was part of the Austrian team in the Olympic Games of Stockholm in 1912 and came back home with a silver medal, covering with glory the Slovenian olympic debut. But it was in the twenties that Slovenia, although dressed in the Yuguslavian colors, knew its most glorious olympic days, and all due to one sport only: gymnastics.
Mister Leon Stukelj started writing his name in the history of sport in 1924. In that year's Olympic Games, in Paris, he won two gold medals; 4 years later, in Amsterdam, he won one gold medal and two bronze medals; in 1936, in the famous Berlin Olympics, after missing the 1932 Games because of an injury, he finish his career in beauty with a silver medal. Besides all this, he won fourteen medals in important international competitions, five of which were gold medals. In the 1928 Olympic Games Stukelj surprised the world with a spectacular and original mouvement in the rings, which, still today, is called the "Stukelj mouvement".
Leon Stukelj was, until November 8th 1999, the oldest olympic champion alive. Born on November 12th 1898, in the city of Novo Mesto, he was 4 days away from his 101st birthday when he died of a heart attack in a hospital in Maribor. Leon Stukelj has been paid homages several times because he was admired by everybody, especially as he grew older and older without losing his joy of life or his agility - people who have seen it say that he could do things most young people couldn't. One of the homages was, in 1998, the placement of his picture in the New York Hall of Fame, side by side with Jesse Owens.
The celebration of his hundredth birthday was a national event in which many many important people were present: the president of the Republic of Slovenia, the prime minister and many other national and international personalities, like Nadia Comaneci, Bob Beamon and Mohamed Ali. The most important moment in the celebrations was a gymnastics gala entitled "Ave, Triumphator!" with performances by some of the greatest gymnasts in the world. Juan Antonio Samaranch, the International Olympic Comite president, didn't miss the anniversary and took the opportunity to invite Stukelj to be a special guest in Sydney 2000 Olympics, like in Atlanta 1996. He thanked him and answered: "2000 is still far away... We'll see" At 3 o' clock on November 8th 1999 the world lost its oldest olympic champion, who used to be called the Slovenian "Lord of the Rings".
But back to the glorious twenties, Leon Stukelj wasn't the only Slovenian olympic star shining in Amsterdam. In 1928 six other Slovenian gymnasts enriched the Yugoslavian medal list: Joze Primozic, who won a silver and a bronze medal, Stane Derganc,who won two bronze medals and Janez Porenta, Boris Gregorka, Anton Malej and Edvard Antosiewicz who won a bronze medal each. In the sixties appeared the gymnast who is said to be "the inheritor of Stukelj's talent": Miroslav Cerar, also known as Miro Cerar, who owns twenty-eight medals (Olympic - gold and bronze in 1964, gold in 1968, and he also participated in the Games in 1960 - World and European medals), of which sixteen are gold medals. At that time, Tine Srot was also a good Slovenian gymnast.
What followed was a somewhat poor period in the most successfull Slovenian sport, until in the end of the eighties Alojz Kolman appeared and won a medal in European championships. More recently, Aljaz Pegan, Dejan Locnikar, Mitja Petkovsek and Mojca Mavric, who are all European Champions, are the main names in Slovenian gymnastics.
Some Slovenian basketball and handball players have also won olympic (and other) medals playing for Yugoslavia. Basketball and handball are, together with ice hockey,the most important colective sports in Slovenia, except for football. Ice hockey is one of the favourite sports in Slovenia, although it is losing popularity. The best teams are Olimpija and Acroni Jesenice, who always play for the title.
As far as handball is concerned, Celje Pivovarna Lasko is the best team for years; Prule 67 and Prevent are also good teams. But Celje Pivovarna Lasko's success goes beyond the borders of Slovenia: in 2003/04 they were European champions. The Krim Neutro Roberts also achieved this title: in 2000/2001 they took the Women's Champions League title to Slovenia. As for Slovenian athletes in the olympic podium with the Yugoslavian team, there are three: Alenka Cuderman was first in 1984, Rolando Pusnik won gold in 1984 too and also bronze in 1988 and Iztok Puc was there in the 1988 third place and won the gold medal in 1996 (altough he was Slovene, Puc preferred to play for the Croat National Team).
Basketball is the favourite of these three sports in Slovenia, and it's also very sucessfull. The best Slovenian teams are, among others, Union Olimpija, Krka Telekom Novo Mesto, Pivovarna Lasko... Olimpija has had good performances in european competitions, but the highlight of Slovenian basketball are a few players who play for some of the best teams in the world (in Europe and NBA). Some examples: Sani Becirovic, Matjaz Smodis, Marko Milic, Boris Gorenc (who even played a tournament for Chicago Bulls, but never signed a contract), Radoslav Nesterovic, Primoz Bezec and also Arriel McDonald, a north-american with Slovenian passport. Slovenia is also the home country of a basketball legend: Ivo Daneu,who was considered the MVP of 1967 World Cup (playing for Yugoslavia)and won, together with Aljosa Zorga, the silver medal in the 1968 Olympic Games. Three other Slovenes won silver playing for Yugoslavia: Vinko Jelovac in 1976 and Jure Zdovc and Polona Dornik in 1988. Another important person in the history of Slovenian Basketball is Peter Vilfan, who at the present belongs to the Slovenian Basketball Federation Board.
Winter sports are a Slovenian national passion. In 1689, in his book "The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola", J.V. Valvasor (1641-1693) discribes how the peasants of upper Carniola travelled down to the valley, and that discription totally matches present-day skiing. More: in Bloke, southeast of Ljubljana, skis are used since the Slavs established in the regio, that is, since 600 AD. That proves that, although they weren't invented in Slovenia, skis are pat ofthe Slovenian culture for a long time. Skis were used to everyday life tasks, even to carry the coffin in a funeral, but also to play games and have fun. Besides that, Slovenia is the craddle of the so-called "ski flying" - ski jumps in
which the skier can jump so far that it seems like he's flying. The "father" of the ski flying is Stanko Bloudek (1890-1959), the engineer, sportsman and enthusiastic sport-promoter who built, in spite of the opposition at home and abroad, including from the International Skiing Federation, the giant jump in Planica, in the northwest of Slovenia. It was there that the magic 100m mark was beaten for the first time in History. This partially explains the Slovenian interest for Winter sports, but another very important reason is the existence of so many mountains (and, nowadays, excellent ski resorts) which make skiing very accessible. That has contributed a lot for the great list of Slovenian Winter champions. In alpine skiing, ski jumping and snowboard, many champions speak Slovene, especially in the last twenty years. Bojan Krizaj, Boris Strel, Jure Franko, Mateja Svet, Jure Kosir and Matej Jovan (these last two are great friends and started a rap band which has already released two albums), Katja Koren, Alenka Dovzan, Natasa Bokal, Urska Hrovat, Spela Pretnar, Andrej Miklavc (alpine skiing), Primoz Ulaga, Miran Tepes, Matjaz Debelak, Matjaz Zupan, Franci Petek, Primoz Peterka, Peter Zonta (ski jumping), Polona Zupan and Dejan Kosir (snowboard) are some of the Slovenian names which are now part of Winter sports history.
One of the most admired mountaineers in the world is Slovene: his name is Tomaz Humar. He was already recognized as one of the best, but he definitely conquered his place in history on November 3rd 1999, when he became the first man to climb (alone) the southern wall of the Dhaulagiri mountain, in Nepal, which is 8.167m heigh - it's the 8th highest mountain in the world. To achieve it he had to go through a 9-day sacrifice in one of the hardest walls in the planet, which is even more dangerous due to the high probability of avalanches. Another very important person in Slovenian montaineering is Joza Cop (1893 -1975), who was an excellent alpinist and rescued many people in the mountains of Slovenia.
Also part of the history of sports (but not Winter sports) are the six Slovenian rowers who, in 1992, were the first Slovenes ever to receive an olympic medal dressed in their own country's colors - they all won bronze medals. Denis Zvegelj and Iztok Cop in double sculls and Jani Klemencic, Saso Mirjanic, Milan Jansa and Sadik Mujkic in four sculls were the followers of the same Sadik Mujkic and Bojan Preseren, who already in 1988 took the bronze medal to Slovenia, at the time still a Yugoslavian republic.
In 1996 it was the the moment of glory of the canoist Andraz Vehovar (silver medalist in individual slalom) and Brigita Bokovec, the first woman to win an olympic medal for Slovenia: she was second in 100m hurdles (in 2000 she was fourth). But there are other important persons in Slovenian athletics: Alenka Bikar (100m and 200m), Matija Sestak (400m), Brigita Langerholc (400 and 800m - fourth place in Sydney 800m), Helena Javornik (champion and record holder from 1500m to the Marathon - one of the very few athlets in the world to achieve this), Britta Bilac (high jump), Gregor Cankar (long jump) and Anja Valant (triple jump and long jump) are a few examples. And of course there is Jolanda Ceplak, the best Slovenian athlete in present times, indoor 800m world record holder and third placed in Athens 2004 in the same distance. And we also have to mention Merlene Ottey, the female athlete who won more medals in the olympic history, who ran for Slovenia in Athens. Despite the fact that all her medals were achieved with the Jamaican shirt, her name means respect and admiration for any track and field lover.
In Sydney the Slovenian anthem was heard in Olympic Games for the first time, and twice on the same day: first for the rowers Luka Spik and Iztok Cop (who got the silver medal in Athens) and then for the shooter Rajmond Debevec. These two medals put Slovenia in the second place in the Sydney 2000 "Gold Medal per capita" tally - the first was Bahamas, who only one gold medal but has only 300.000 inhabitants.
In 2004 two other Slovenians got medals (both bronze): the judo fighter Urska Zolnir (in the women -63kg category) and the sailer Vasilij Zbogar (in the Laser class - in whish he was European champion in 2004).
Tennis is also a sport in which Slovenes have achieved some international recognition. Well, not the Slovenes in general, but... Slovenian women. Four Slovenian female tennis players are very successful - they are the followers of Mima Jausovec, the greatest Slovenian tennis player ever, who won Roland Garros both in singles (1977) and doubles (1978), having reached the final in two other times (both in singles). Katarina Srebotnik, Tina Krizan, Maja Matevzic and Tina Pisnik usually play Grand Slam tournaments, and while in singles they haven't had much luck, in doubles they have achieved great success, playing with each other or with foreign partners. Katarina Srebotnik, who is the most familiar to the Portuguese because she won Estoril Open in 1999 (and became the fourth player ever to win her first WTA tournament), usually plays with Tina Krizan, and together they won Estoril Open in 2000 (and reached the final in 2001). Katarina is also responsible for the highlight of Slovenian tennis: playing with the South-african Piet Norval, she won mixed doubles Roland Garros in 1999. In April 2001 I had the chance to watch part of the Katarina Srebotnik and Tina Krizan's match against the French player Alexandra Fusai and the Italian player Rita Grande live. It was a Porto Ladies Open semi-final, but rain caused the match to be suspended for an undetermined period and I could witness nothing but a few games in the first set. Unfortunately Katarina Srebotnik and Tina Krizan lost. The best of all this was watching them live and getting Tina Krizan's autograph! :o)
In 2001 one more name was written in the best Slovenian sportsmen list: Andrej Hauptman's. His greatest achievement was winning the bronze medal in the 2001 Road World Championships in October, here in Portugal.
