Planica, FIS Nordic Skiing World Championship, media event, Sunday, 26. 2. 2023, 4.30pm

Power in the sport, knowledge from the book is the topic of the centre stage programme accompanying the PLANICA World Nordic Championships 2023. 

Featured on stage will include Slovenian's top athletes and a bestselling author:
·    Sara Isaković, an Olympic swimmer who achieved a life goal with a silver medal at the Olympic games in Beijing (2008); as a successful "performance" psychologist now helps other athletes achieve their goals;
·    Tadej Golob, a writer, alpine mountaineer who described skiing on Everest in his book From Everest, represents fellow athletes (among them Peter Vilfan and Goran Dragić) in his biographies, wrotes about the sport in his bestselling adult and youth novels (Golden Tooth, Ali boma ye!) and is an author of internationally translated crime series about Inspector Taras Birsi;
·    Klemen Bauer, biathlon competitor and a silver medalist at the World Championship in the mixed relay (Ruhpolding, 2012), he is now developing his "second career" after retiring from the sport
·    Katja Stergar, Acting Director of Slovenian Book Agency, also a fencer, comparativist, Project Manager of Slovenia: Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023 and Slovenia: Guest of Honour at Bologna 2024

The guests of the panel will discuss different topics, touching upon the most important one: Why do books and sports belong together and not apart? Individuals who reads books are known to have a better concentration, visualise more easily and can develop a better understanding of complex situations. These are all the important  attributes of a great athlete, who uses for his or her success. Yet, good books also require good stories – and there are plenty of them in sports. Featured guests will present their stories from different angles, emphasising the importance of projection and implementation of Slovenian literature with sports storytelling into the world; also in the light of the project "Slovenia, guest of honor at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt 2023". Reading is very important for the motivation and development of athletes, as it focuses on the psychology of sports and the athlete's path to success.

During the event, you will be able to see an exhibition of selected fiction and "documentative" books written by Slovenian authors, all on the topic of sports, available in Slovenian, English and German. The books were contributed by Slovenian publishing houses (Beletrina, Celjska Mohorjeva družba, DZS, d.d., Miš založba, Založba Mladinska knjiga, Založba Pivec and Umco d.d.); some of them also borrowed from Kranj City Library, selected books in foreign languages are from the archives of Slovenian Book Agency. The event will take place at the media center of PLANICA 2023, organised as co-operation of Government Office for Communication of the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenian Book Agency.

Within Slovenian Book Agency, the event is coordinated by Tjaša Urankar, Undersecretary, responsible for Reading Culture and Literary Events (For more information contact her at: tjasa.urankar@jakrs.si).

More about the Programme: Government Communications Office events in Planica | Slovenia.si

Planica 2023: Nordic World Ski Championships | I feel Slovenia

Slovenia: Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023 | Facebook

Images:

Sara Isaković (Foto: Osebni arhiv)

Tadej Golob (Foto: Borut Kranjc)

Klemen Bauer (Foto: Nordic Focus)

Katja Stergar (Foto: Holger Menzel) 

Planica (Foto: OIC)