Slovenia’s first gold medallists were awarded a collector coin to mark the Day of Slovenian Sport

Banka Slovenije has issued a collector coin to mark the Day of Slovenian Sport, a national holiday celebrated on 23 September. In this way we are honouring an event of great significance to the country, namely the first two Olympic gold medals for an independent Slovenia. On this occasion, we hosted the winners of the first two Olympic gold medals, rowers Luka Špik and Iztok Čop and shooter Rajmond Debevec, at the Banka Slovenije Museum.

Slovenian sportspeople are achieving outstanding success in a variety of sports competitions and in a number of different areas of sport. The date of 23 September 2000 is written in gold in the annals of Slovenian sport, for it was then that independent Slovenia won its first two Olympic gold medals at the Sydney Games. The gold medallists were rowers Luka Špik and Iztok Čop, and shooter Rajmond Debevec. At Banka Slovenije we have decided to celebrate this momentous event by issuing a collector coin in this year’s euro coin set.

We held a short ceremony for all three Slovenia’s first gold medallists at the Banka Slovenije Museum, where Governor Boštjan Vasle presented them with a collector's coin and emphasised the importance of their achievement for the country and for all future generations of athletes.