Slovenia is a Cinderella in the World of sports.
A relatively unknown country that produces champions in sport and life on a massive scale.
Since Beijing 2008 Olympics until 2022, Slovenian athletes are always among top 10 countries in medals per capita in both, winter and summer Olympic Games. Slovenian national teams and individuals are among world's elite class in basketball, volleyball, cycling, climbing, skiing, ski-jumping, handball, kayak, table-tennis, and many other sports regularly.
How can a country of 2 million people produce such a big number of champion athletes in winter and summer sports?
Luka Dončič (Dallas Mavericks), NBA superstar, as the flagship of Slovenian athletes in the World, his counterpart, Goran Dragič (Chicago Bulls), 2 times Tour de France winner and the best cyclist in the World, Tadej Pogačar, and his main rival Primož Roglič (3 times La Vuelta champion). Jan Oblak, Atletico Madrid goalkeeper set a record in Spanish football for being named the best goalkeeper of the season for 4 years in a row. Janja Garnbret, at 23 being crowned as the best climber in history, Tina Trstenjak, an olympic gold medalist judoka, Tim Gajser, a 5x Motocross GP World Champion, and many others.
The secret of success.
Slovenian sports scientists are running the longest longitudinal database of child fitness in the world, making it a useful resource for research and policy purposes, in addition to its original educational goals.
The average Slovenian schoolchild’s fitness is on the 70 percentile of European peers, meaning they are in the top 30% of all children across Europe for both boys and girls. Slovenia is the only country in the world which has managed to decrease the prevalence of childhood obesity from 7.5 % to 6.8 % across 2011-2018 respectively.
According to Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance Slovenia has been ranked the highest in school and overall physical activity.
We are succeeding with a large majority of children and youth (87%-93%) who meet criterion-referenced standards
(1) for muscular strength.
(2) for muscular endurance.
(3) for flexibility.
We are among very top nations with 80% - 86% of children and youth who meet the Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health, which recommend that children and youth accumulate at least 60 min of moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA per day on average.
Slovenia and Singapore are the safest countries for children to grow up according to NGO Save the Children’s index End of Childhood.
