Peace: Partizan Ski Competition

Peace

Sport during the war

On 20 and 21 January 1945, in the midst of the final battles of the Second World War, the only known wartime winter sports competition took place in Cerkno and its immediate surrounding area, the centre of the Partisan-held area of Primorska. It was organised by Rudi Finžgar under the patronage of the commander of the 31st Division of the NOV and POS. The competitors, most of them pre-war athletes, competed in a team military patrol event consisting of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting (the origins of today’s biathlon competition) and individual giant slalom and ski jumping events, the latter on a purpose-built ski jump. The tradition of this military sports competition has been maintained since 1975 by an event known as the Partisan Ski Competition Cerkno ’45. Sports competitions never entirely died out during the war and many were also held in military units.

Damijan Guštin

Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History (retired)

Stamp design: Ski jumping competition in Cerkno, 7 November 1944

Source of photograph on stamp: Dougan, National Museum of Contemporary History

Source of photograph in margin: Franjo Veselko, National Museum of Contemporary History