Recently, we charted the ascendancy of Kosovan Olympic Champions. In this article, we’ll look at the rise of Slovenian Olympic Champions. There are remarkable similarities.
Both Kosovo and Slovenia are very small countries in the Balkans with close to two million people each. They have three Olympic Champions each and all three are female.
But there are differences too. In Kosovo, the three female judokas vary in weight and they have Olympic golds in -48kg, -52kg and -57kg. In Slovenia, all three golds are in the -63kg weight class. Kosovo won its Olympic golds over two Olympic cycles. In Slovenia, it was over four Olympic cycles. 
Zolnir
It all started with Urska Zolnir, whose first big international result was actually in the Olympics. She was a wild card for the 2004 Olympics and ended up with a bronze medal.
The next year, in 2005, she got her first World broze medal (she would get another one in 2011).
Her first European Championship medal was in 2007 where she got a silver (she would get gold two years later in 2009).
As for the IJF World Tour, her very first medal was gold in the 2008 Tokyo Grand Slam. She would eventually get a total of 4 IJF golds.
Her crowning glory of course was gold at the 2012 London Olympics. She decided to retire on top although she did come back for the European Team Championships in 2014. She had two fights and won both. 
Trstenjak
Tina Trstenjak, who was from the same club as Zolnir, is by far the most accomplished of the three Olympic gold medalists from Slovenia.
Trstenjak excelled in the IJF World Tour, for which she has a whopping 14 gold medals. Her first IJF medal was way back in 2012 at the Qingdao Grand Prix, when Zolnir was still active.
Her first medal in the Europeans was in 2013. She would eventually win the European title three times.
She got the first of her two bronzes at the World Championships in 2014. The very next year, in 2015, she became World Champion. She also has a World silver medal. So, she has medals of every color from the World’s.
Trstenjak peaked in 2016, winning the Olympic gold medal by defeating arch-rival Clarisse Agbegnenou of France in the final. They would have a rematch of their final in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, where Agbegnenou would emerge champion. Trstenjak retired after the Tokyo Games. 
Leski
Andreja Leski, who’s from a different club than Zolnir and Trstenjak, got her first IJF World Tour medal in 2016 at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix where she got a bronze. She got her first gold in 2018 at the Dusseldorf Grand Prix and would eventually get a total of four gold medals.
She won a bronze at the 2021 European Championships and two years later, in 2023, she won a European gold.
At the World Championships, she got her first bronze in 2021 as well. And then she got another one in 2023.
For the 2024 Paris Olympics, she was a top contender but not the top prospect for gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics. That year, she did not win gold at the World Championships, European Championships or any of the Grand Slams she took part in. But in Paris, she shined.
Her semifinal match was against her arch-rival Agbegnenou, who had defeated her five times in the past. But at the Olympics, Leski was not to be denied. She won when it mattered the most and went on to win the gold.
