Urška Žolnir

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

Sporting career

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

After her first World Cup victory in 2003 in Sofia, she won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. Also she won bronze at the World Judo Championships 2005. 2007 defeated them at the European Championships only in the final of the French Lucie Decosse. At the European Championships in 2008 Žolnir received the bronze medal; in Beijing she won the Olympic Judo tournament in seventh place after they had carried 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 in both the European as well as at the World Championships. Her biggest success was the Olympic gold medal in London in 2012.

The sports soldier won the 2004 and 2005 World Military Championship and in 2003 and 2011 at the Military World Games, to 2012 she won 13 Slovenian championship. The 1.73 meter tall judoka starts for the judo club Sankaku in Celje.