Slovenian athletes set out off to the 2005 Mediterranean Games in Spain aiming to do better than at the last Med Games in Tunis, and are now returning from Spain with a 35 medal haul, 15 more than they won four years ago.
Before heading for the Med Games, the head of the Slovenian delegation hoped that Slovenian team could at least repeat their personal best performances. However, many have done even better, which resulted in a total of 35 medals, ten golds, eight silvers and 17 bronze medals. Matjaž Jemec was pleased as he commented on Slovenia's achievement in Almeria on Sunday. "As the head of the Slovenian teams I'm particularly happy with the great results as well as the recognition coming from other teams who speak about Slovenia as a sporting miracle," Jemec told the press.
Slovenia, which had 163 athletes at the games, was one of 21 countries competing. While it was surpassed medal-wise by sporting superpowers such as Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Turkey, it did better than comparable countries such as Croatia or Serbia and Montenegro. Slovenia won 19 medals at the first Med Games in France and 23 at the second in Bari in 1997. This year's achievement will surely be difficult to surpass at the next Med Games in Pescara, Italy in 2009.
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