On Sunday, February 26 2023, at Planica FIS World Nordic Skiing Championship Media center, an event was held in front of around 150 domestic and foreign journalists, photographers and other guests. The event, titled POWER IN THE SPORT, KNOWLEDGE IN THE BOOK, was organised in cooperation with Government Office for Communication and Cooperation of the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenian Book Agency.

As part of the accompanying program in Planica, a panel of Slovenian athletes was presented: Sara Isaković, a retired professional swimmer and a successful "performance" psychologist helping athletes achieving top results, also a silver medalist at the OI (Beijing, 2008); Tadej Golob, a writer, alpinist, with published book Z Everesta, about his skiing experience on Everest, writer of biographies about athletes (among them Petr Vilfan and Goran Dragić), writer of sport novels (the youth novel Zlati zob, Ali boma ye!) and author of the bestselling crime series about Inspector Taras Birsa; Klemen Bauer, biathlete, silver medalist  from World Championship in the mixed relay (Ruhpolding, 2012),  after retirement seeking his "second career"; Katja Stergar, Acting Director of Slovenian Book Agency, fencer, comparativist, Project manager of Slovenia: Guest of Honour ar Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023 and Bologna 2024 and Ana Tavčar, a journalist from RTV Slovenia.

All the participants agreed that sports and books are closely related. Those who read books find it easier to focus, visualise and achieve sport or other personal goals with a higher level of concentration. A person who writes books needs a great deal of patience, just like any athlete. The primary family and its support, is fundamental in development of reading skills as well as in the encouragement to engage in sports. Childhood surrounded by books and encouragement of the family to participate in sports, are a great basis for the development of a good reader and athlete.

In their talks, Sara Isaković emphasised the power of concentration, Tadej Golob emphasised endurance in writing and Klemen Bauer explained that he could not imagine his free time, between trainings and competitions, without a book. They all agreed that what the supporting team of coaches, repairmen and masseurs mean to athletes are what editors, designers and proofreaders also mean for the success of an author. Further, Katja Stergar emphasised the importance of hosting Slovenia as Guest of Honor at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023 and next year at Children's and Young people's Book fair at Bologna 2024. According to her, events like these, at the level of World Book Championship, are both an honour and an obligation, where a book from Slovenia with everybody involved, from authors to readers, deserves a chance for a medal.

During the event, an exhibition of a selection of fiction and "documentative" books by Slovenian authors on the topic of sports (in Slovenian, English and German) was also on display. Books presentedy were contributed by Slovenian publishing houses (Beletrina, Celjska Mohorjeva družba, DZS, d.d., Miš založba, Založba Mladinska knjiga, Založba Pivec in Umco d.d., Aktivni mediji d.o.o.), from Kranj City Library and books in foreign languages by Slovenian Book Agency.

Reading is a value and a foundation for knowledge, it is an exercise for the brain, reading reveals secrets and discovers new worlds, banishes boredom and relaxes; hand in hand with sports, it is an inspiration and the right path to success.

Foto: Archive JAK RS