Slovenian Sports

Renee Schildgen

Sports in Slovenia play a strong role in the lives and culture of Slovene residents. There are nearly 400,000 registered members of almost 3,500 sports societies and clubs, which are joined into 69 national leagues in Slovenia. Nearly a third of adult Slovenes take part in some sort of sport at least once a week. Slovenia has found a place in the Olympic games, has hosted a number of international sporting events, excelled in team sports and perfected extreme Alpine sports.

Slovenia in the Olympics

"You are a small country but great at sports," said Juan Antonio, president of the International Olympic Committee, while visiting Slovenia in 1993.

The world’s most remarkable athletes compete in the Olympic Games and Slovenes, for years, have been making their presence known among these top competitors. Although Slovenia did not declare independence until June 25, 1991, Slovenes have been competing in the Olympics since 1912. Since then they have taken part in all summer and winter Olympic Games, with the exception of the Lake Placid and Los Angeles in 1932 and Squaw Valley in 1960.

The first great achievements by Slovenes were in gymnastics before the Second World War (WWII). Particularly famous was Leon Štukelj who, between 1922 and 1936, won eight gold, four silver and five bronze medals in three Olympic games and three world championships. Miro Cerar, carried the reputation of Slovenian gymnastics forward after WWII, with two gold medals and one bronze medal at the Olympic games in Tokyo and Cuidad de Mexico.

Slovenian skiers have had the greatest success in the past twenty years. The 17th century description of a skier from Bloke is the oldest written record of skiing in Central Europe. J.V. Valvasor described Slovenians skiing in 1689 in his book "The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola."
"The Peasants of Upper Carniola know of a rare invention of the sort I had never seen anywhere else: in wintertime, when the snow is plentiful, they descend into the valley with incredible speed. For that purpose they take two strips of wood, each a quarter of an inch thick, half a foot wide, and some five feet long. At the front the wooden strips are bent upward; in the middle there are leather straps to put the feet into. One such strip of wood is strapped under each foot. On top of this, the peasants take a stout cudgel into their hands push it under their armpit, bend backward, and use it as if it were some sort of a rudder to slide off, or even fly down the steepest slopes ... no less swift than those who use skates in Holland to glide on ice," wrote Valvasor.

Slovenia competed under the Slovenian flag for the first time at the Olympic Games in Albertville in 1992. Since then they have won 51 Olympic medals.

Slovenia Hosting International Sporting Events

Slovenia is considered to be an excellent organizer of world competitions. The capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, hosted the gymnastics world cup in 1992 and 1970, the table tennis world championships in 1965, and figure skating and men's basketball world championships took place there in 1970. Weightlifters competed for the title of world champion in Ljubljana in 1932, and the world bowling championships took place in 1984.

Another city in Slovenia, Bled, has hosted three world championships in sculling in 1966, 1979 and 1989. Slovenia also hosted the 35th Chess Olympiad in Bled. The nearby town of Lesce has also organized three skydiving world championships. Slovenian towns have also hosted a total of seven ice hockey world championships. Maribor, Planica, Kranjska Gora, Pokljuka and Bohinj are traditional organizers of skiing and biathlon world cup races as well.

Team Sports in Slovenia

Slovenia also has successful individuals and teams in team sports. The most popular team sports are basketball, ice hockey, football and handball.

Football, or better known to Americans as soccer, is very popular in Slovenia. Slovenia was only admitted to football's world governing body in 1992, a year after declaring its independence from Yugoslavia. The Slovenian football team qualified for the first time in 2000 for the European Championship and World Cup in 2002.

Another popular team sport in Slovenia is handball. Handball combines the elements of soccer and basketball, as six players move the ball down a floor that is larger than a basketball court and try to score by throwing the ball past a goalkeeper into the net.

Extreme Alpine Sports

A long-standing tradition of Slovenes is competing in Alpine extreme sports. Slovenes exceed in extreme Alpine climbing, skiing, and swimmers.

In 2000 ultra-marathon swimmer Martin Strel completed a 58-day, 3,004-km marathon swim, which took him from the headwaters of the Danube to its mouth on the Black Sea coast. He made a significant mark on history as the first person in the world to tackle this difficult task.

Also in 2000, Davo Karnicar, a 38-year-old ski instructor, became the first person to ski non-stop, without taking his skis off, down Mt. Everest, the world's highest mountain. It took him five hours. The slopes of Mt. Everest have so far taken 161 lives. Karnicar made his first attempt to ski down Everest in 1996, but a snowstorm halted his efforts.

Slovenes can pride themselves on another record achievement. By climbing the south face of Dhaulagiri, Tomaž Humar opened a new chapter in Himalayan climbing ascending rock walls that were previously closed because they were too dangerous. From the first ascent of the south face of Dhaulagiri, by Slovenes in 1981, it was perfectly clear that the central part of the rock wall could only be climbed by an exceptionally skilled and trained solo climber or an equally swift roped party of two climbers. Any other approach would require the climbers to stay too long on the icy rock walls. Humar succeeded by combining the first option with a very strong back-up team. This Slovenian expedition had the highest number of members ever, being such a risky venture.

Slovenes have impacted the world through their commitment to sports. They have made their marks in the Olympics, hosted exceptional international sporting events, shined in team sports, and refined extreme Alpine sports.

Renee Schildgen is a journalism and business management double major at Bradley University. She is the queen of Slovene sports. Direct questions, comments, or other responses to rschildg@bradley.edu.