Urška Žolnir

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Urška Žolnir 2012

Urška Žolnir (born October 9, 1981 in Žalec ) is a former Slovenian judoka and Olympic champion in the weight class up to 63 kilograms, the light middleweight. She is the first woman to win Olympic gold for Slovenia.

Athletic career

Urška Žolnir won the Junior European Championship in Ljubljana in 1997 in the weight class up to 61 kilograms, and since 1998 she has almost exclusively competed in the weight class up to 63 kilograms. After winning the World Youth Games in 1998, she won her first Slovenian national championship title in the adult class in 1999 and successfully defended her title at the European Junior Championship in Rome. In 2001 she finished fifth at the World Championships .

After her first World Cup victory in Sofia in 2003, she won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games . She also won bronze at the 2005 Judo World Championships . In 2007 she was only defeated by the French Lucie Décosse in the final of the European Championships . At the European Championships in 2008 Žolnir received the bronze medal; in Beijing, she took seventh place at the Olympic judo tournament after carrying the Slovenian flag at the opening ceremony. In 2009 she won her first major title at the European Championships in Tbilisi. Two years later she won bronze medals at both the European and World Championships . Her greatest success was her Olympic victory in London in 2012 .

The sport soldier won the military world championships in 2004 and 2005 and at the military world games in 2003 and 2011, and by 2012 she had won 13 Slovenian championship titles. The 1.73 meter tall judoka started for the judo club Sankaku in Celje .

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