Slovenia at the Olympics

Slovenia first participated as an independent nation at the Olympic Games at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and the country has sent athletes to compete at every Games since then. The Slovenian Olympic Committee was established in 1991 and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee on 5 February 1992.

Contents

• Multiple medal winners
• List of pre independence Slovenian medalists
• References

Slovenian athletes first competed at the Olympics in Stockholm, at the 1912 Summer Olympics, as part of the Austrian team. There, Rudolf Cvetko became the first Slovene to win an Olympic medal, a silver in the men's team sabre. Then, until Slovenia's independence, they competed as part of Yugoslavia. Before the Second World War, all of the Olympic medals for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were won by Slovene gymnasts (with the exception of Croatian Dragutin Ciotti who was a member of the bronze medal winning men's gymnastics all-around team at the 1928 Summer Olympics). Leon Štukelj was the most prominent pre-war athlete, winning three gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, and he is still the most decorated Slovenian Olympian. Among post-war Olympians, Miroslav Cerar won two gold and one bronze medals, also in gymnastics. All of Yugoslavia's Winter Olympic medals (three silver and one bronze) were won by Slovenians with the first being the silver medal of Jure Franko in alpine skiing, won at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, when Yugoslavia hosted the Games.

Athletes representing Slovenia have won a total of 23 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 15 at the Winter Olympic Games. Slovenia's most successful Summer Olympics as of 2016 have been the 2000 Summer Olympics where they won two gold medals and the 2008 Summer Olympics where they won five medals overall, including one gold. The most successful winter games were the 2014 Winter Olympics, where Slovenian athletes won a record eight medals, including two gold. Tina Maze (alpine skiing) and Iztok Čop (Rowing) are the most decorated post-independence Slovenian Olympians, with four medals each. The shooter Rajmond Debevec has competed at the Olympics eight times as of 2016. He competed between 1984 and 2012, representing Yugoslavia for his first two appearances. Track and field athlete Merlene Ottey competed at the Olympics seven times between 1980 and 2004. In her first six appearances, she was representing Jamaica, for whom she won nine medals, the seventh time she represented Slovenia. Debevec is the oldest medallist and the oldest Slovenian participant at the Olympics, having won his last medal at the age of 49 in 2012. The youngest participant from Slovenia was Nastja Govejšek, a swimmer, who was 15 at the 2012 games. The youngest Olympic medallist for Slovenia has been alpine skier Alenka Dovžan, who was 18 years old when she competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Slovenian athletes have won medals in seven sports at the Summer and in five sports at the Winter Games. The most successful sport for Slovenia at the Summer Olympics is judo with five medals (two gold) while the most successful sport at the Winter Olympics is alpine skiing with seven medals (two gold). In team sports, the national teams have participated three times in handball and once in ice hockey, and the ice hockey team has already qualified for the tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics. With a population of 2 million, Slovenia often finds itself among countries with the highest medal-per-capita rankings.