by Oana Dușmănescu
In January, at the other end of the world – meaning Colombia – the Paragliding World Championship bought a great surprise for the Slovenians. Their national team came home with the silver medal they had won at the most important international paraglide competition, being just one step behind Germany and outclassing Spain. The competition lasted two weeks and each day the weather varied, thus testing the skills and the attention of the 148 gliders, who came here from 38 countries around the globe.
Paragliding is a serious thing that you cannot joke around with. One must master perfectly the object that helps with the flying, and then catch the right wind, without pushing or forcing on the paraglide. It is a high risk sport that takes place among hills and low mountains. The Colombian city of Roldanillo, lying in a valley over the Cordilleran Mountains, was the perfect spot for rising high and floating over the world.
At the World Championships in Colombia, Slovenia was represented by six courageous men; on their website, they present themselves in such a simple and wonderful manner that it makes you want to immediately start taking paragliding lessons.
Dušan Orož, Jošt Napret, Jurij Vidic, Primož Susa, Tilen Ceglar and Jože Molek flew in Roldanillo. „First and foremost, let us explain that we do not jump from airplanes or from mountain tops. We take off the ground and we glide above it as long as we possibly can. At the end, we land slowly somewhere in a meadow, with a large smile on our faces”.
In fact, the surprise of the silver medal was not supposed to be that great. In Slovenia there are over 50 places where this pretentious sport can be practiced. The Alps are there for a reason, and each year the number of sportspeople who try flying with the glider and the harness is growing with enthusiasm. Also, the record for the longest distance ever traversed towards the set landing point – 368.9 kilometers, between Vorsburg and Jamestown in Africa – belongs to the Slovenian paragliders and brothers, Aljaž Valič an Urban Valič.
Moreover, the Slovenian`s appetite for extreme sports has grown a lot in the last few years. The small country has sent its “inspired madmen” to participate at the ultra-marathons that spread all over the globe – cycling, swimming, mountain skiing, alpinism or whitewater kayaking.
Spots like Soča Valley or Bohinj earned a reputation of adventure and adrenaline, because people all around the world would come here to practice emergent sports that have a bit of bizarre and unknown in them. Canyoning for example involves going through somewhat dangerous canyons by the use of a range of techniques like climbing, jumping, rappelling and even swimming. Parachuting, hot air balloon flying and whitewater rafting (on moving waters that are not afraid to overturn all watercrafts) - are available for adrenaline lovers.
In time, the crazes of the half brave, half fools have left some Slovenian stories that got into the Guinness World Records – stories of people who have turned their successes and victories into genuine handbooks of courage. The most famous of all is fish-man Martin Strel – the long and extremely long distances swimmer; he has covered some of the largest rivers in the world, from the place they spring to the place they discharge. Among these there is the spectacular Mississippi River, the mysterious Amazon, but also Yangtze and the Danube. The swimmer who had just turned 60 years in 2014, has traversed thousands and thousands of kilometers with his arms and back; he refused to swim the Nile, the world`s longest flowing water, saying: “I do not plan to swim the Nile. It is long indeed, but for me it is not difficult enough. In my opinion, the Nile is nothing but a poor stream.”
Another “madman” who has shown the world that Slovenians are serious when it comes to dangerous sports, is Davo Karničar; who had since his youth an interest towards untraveled mountain areas. Karničar, who is also an alpinist, has skied downhill some unexplored places of the Seven Hills, far away from the slopes intended for prudent amateurs, - the highest mountain on each continent: Everest, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Kosciuszko, McKinley and Vinson.
„The feelings I have when I am sliding an overwhelming mountain downhill, while fearing the avalanches or trying to find the best route through cliffs and dingles? I feel absolute bliss and absolute exhaustion. The mountain can give and can take so much that it shocks you and I have tailored for myself such a lifestyle that respects and at the same time dares the mountain”, said Davo Karničar, after he had descended in 2000 the highest mountain on the globe, the Everest.
Davo Karničar
Slovenia is also the home country of Jure Robič, specialized in ultramarathons of cycling. Robič would ride hundreds and hundreds of kilometers pedaling his bike. The lab tests he went through proved that, from the point of view of resistance, he is one of the strongest extreme sportsmen of the planet. In 2004, the cycler smashed the record for the longest distance ever traversed by a cyclist within 24 hours without stop -834, 77 kilometers. Unfortunately, Jure Robič died in 2010, killed by the hobby he loved so much. He was hit by a car while riding his bicycle, in the proximity of his home town, Jesenice.
Jure Robič
