Denis Žvegelj (born 24 June 1972) is an ex

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

rower Rowing, sometimes called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using oarlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is ...

and Olympic medallist. He was born in

Jesenice Jesenice (, german: Aßling''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru'', vol. 6: Kranjsko. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 144.) is a Slovenian town and the seat of the Municipality of Jesenice on the ...

, SR Slovenia.

Rowing Achievements

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

*1992:

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

(SPA) – 3rd place (coxless pair with

Iztok Čop Iztok Čop (born 17 June 1972) is a Slovenian rower and Olympic gold medalist. Biography Čop was born in Kranj, SR Slovenia, and started rowing at the age of 13 in Bled, where Slovenia's best rowing club is located. ...

) *1996:

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

(USA) – 4th place (coxless four with Sadik Mujkić, Milan Janša, Jani Klemenčič)

World Rowing Junior Championships The World Rowing Junior Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). A rower or coxswain shall be classified as a Junior until 31 December of the year in which he reaches the age of ...

: * 1989:

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also other alternative names) is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat of Csongrád-Csanád county. The University of Szeged is one of the m ...

(HUN) – 1st place (coxless pair with

) * 1990: Aiguebelette (FRA) – 1st place (coxless pair with

)

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

: * 1990: Lake Barrington (AUS) – 7th place (coxless four with Sadik Mujkić, Bojan Prešern,

) * 1991:

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(AUT) – 2nd place (coxless pair with

) * 1993:

Roudnice Roudnice is a municipality and village in Hradec Králové District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 700 inhabitants. Etymology The name is derived from the red shades of color (in Czech ''rudá'') of the water in ...

(CZE) – 3rd place (coxless pair with

) * 1995:

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

(FIN) – 8th place (coxless four with Sadik Mujkić, Milan Janša, Jani Klemenčič) * 1997: Aiguebelette (FRA) – 4th place (coxless four with Sadik Mujkić, Milan Janša, Jani Klemenčič)

Career

In 1998 he founded an engineering fir
Basing
On 16 March 2009 Denis has been elected to become President o
Slovenian Rowing Federation
for the time period 2009–2013 2012–2014 CE
Vile Bled
2015 founde
Revive Temple Bled

Bio

Denis started rowing at the age of 12 at local rowing club in his hometown

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

. Serious rowing racing started in the coxless pair with

, when they won two junior world championships in a row (1989, 1990), then they finished 2nd in the World Championships in 1991, and won Bronze at the

Barcelona Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in 1992 with

(the first Olympic medal for independent

). In 1993 Denis and Iztok got bronze medal despite Denis's severe shoulder injury after bicycle accident. Denis carried on with going to study in US at Brown University where he was rowing for men Brown Crew and studying

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

. He was member of, at that time, unbeatable Brown varsity eight, which also won

National Collegiate Rowing Championship The now defunct National Collegiate Rowing Championship was a quasi-official national championship for men's college rowing (United States), collegiate rowing, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, between 1982 and 1996. It pitted the winners of the Eastern Sp ...

in years 1994 and 1995. After return for summer holidays in 1994, he got in a car accident which prevented him to finish rowing season in pair with Iztok Čop, who went on in single to 1994 WRC. Only a few months later, another rower, Sašo Mirjanič from Slovenian four, died in car accident. So next year Denis, joined other three boys from four, to qualify for 96 Olympics. There they achieved 4th place in an incredible fours race, where all six boats were even almost from start to finish line. As next year's similar scenario repeated in WRC in France, when Slovenia was already called to pick up bronze medal, and later (after detail photo finish examination) moved to 4th place, and due to back problems, he finished his career. Denis than focused in working, along with his father, in their machining design fir
Basing
in neighboring town

, which was moved to

in Jan. 2006. 2012 he formed a small Hotel chain at the lake Ble
Vile Bled
and later extend his work to alternative healing to promote bio-energy healing and learning. Since 2015 he runs independent healing, revitalizing and learning cente
Revive Temple Bled
to promote healthy life style and self-healing through proper nutrition, use of bio-energy and detoxification. Denis is a father of three sons Gal (17 March 1994), Maksim (25 September 1998) and Isak (3 July 2000) and lives his hometown of Bled.

References

External links

News Dnevnik 17.03.2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zvegelj, Denis 1972 births Living people Slovenian male rowers Olympic rowers of Slovenia Rowers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Rowers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Slovenia Olympic medalists in rowing World Rowing Championships medalists for Slovenia Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for Yugoslavia Sportspeople from Jesenice, Jesenice