Slovenia remembering gymnastics legend Štukelj
Novo Mesto, 12 November - The 120th anniversary of the birth of Leon Štukelj, a three-time Olympic gold medallist in artistic gymnastics and arguably the most successful Slovenian athlete of all time, will be marked on Monday with a high-profile ceremony and an exhibition in his native town of Novo Mesto.
Novo Mesto
A sculpture of Olympic gold medallist in gymnastics Leon Štukelj (1898-1999).
Photo: Rasto Božič/STA
File photo
The ceremony remembering the six-time Olympic medallist and five-time world champion at the emerging velodrome in Novo Mesto will be broadcast live by national television and addressed by President Borut Pahor.
It will be preceded by the opening of an exhibition on Štukelj, who in addition to being a top-class athlete was also a humanitarian. It will be on display at the regional museum in Novo Mesto.
Štukelj was born in 1898 in Rudolfovo, the name of Novo Mesto at the time, and died in 1999 in Maribor as the oldest living Olympic gold medallist at the time, four days before his 101st birthday.
He was 26 when he won his first Olympic gold medal in Paris in 1924. He actually won two golds - in all-around and on the horizontal bar, which he followed up four years later in Amsterdam with the Olympic gold medal on the rings.
Štukelj also won bronze medals at the 1928 Olympics in all-around and in the team competition with Yugoslavia. He was 38 when he won his last Olympic medal in Berlin in 1936, finishing second on the rings.