YUGOSLAV OLYMPIAN MAKES IT TO L.A.; COUNTY, CITY HONOR MEDAL-WINNING ATHLETE FORCED TO SKIP '32 GAMES.Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer Back in 1932, Leon Stukelj of Slovenia was a favorite to win gold medals in gymnastics in the Los Angeles Olympics Los Angeles Olympics may refer to:
Olympic Games • • . But then the Yugoslav government announced it could only afford to send two of the 10 members of their Olympic team. Stukelj, who already had won three gold medals, was one of the two picked to go. Stukelj declined. ``It was not fair for me to go and my talented colleagues to be left behind,'' Stukelj said. ``We were such close friends.'' The Slovenian-American community raised enough money for the entire team to travel to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , but the money did not arrive in Los Angeles by the start of the Games. ``While I feel I made the right decision in 1932, I was sorry to have missed the Los Angeles games,'' Stukelj said. This week the 98-year-old Stukelj made his first trip to Los Angeles so he could see the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum For board track racing circuit, see . Present use The Coliseum is now primarily the home of the USC Trojan football team. During the recent stretch of its success in football, most of USC's regular home games, especially the alternating games with rivals UCLA and Notre , where the 1932 Games were held. He was honored Tuesday in ceremonies before the county Board of Supervisors The examples and perspective in this article or section may represent an unduly geographically limited view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. The Board of Supervisors is the body governing counties in the U.S. and the Los Angeles City Council  The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. . ``As we drove here, just seeing the Coliseum walls made me very happy,'' Stukelj said. On Friday, Stukelj is slated to be inducted into the newly chartered International Gymnastics Hall of Fame The International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, located in Oklahoma City, USA, is a Hall of Fame dedicated to honoring the achievements and contributions of the world's greatest competitors, coaches and authorities in artistic gymnastics. in Oklahoma City. The Hall of Fame was founded by Olympic gymnastics stars Bart Conner and Nadia Comanechi. Many current sports fans remember Stukelj from his appearance during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Games in Atlanta as he danced his way up a long flight of stairs Noun 1. flight of stairs - a stairway (set of steps) between one floor or landing and the next flight of steps, flight staircase, stairway - a way of access (upward and downward) consisting of a set of steps before meeting President Clinton. Stukelj won two gold medals in combined events and parallel bars at the 1926 Paris Olympics. In Amsterdam, Holland, four years later, he won another gold on the rings and two bronze medals. In his final Olympics in Berlin in 1936, he won a silver medal on the rings. Stukelj spent much of his career working as a judge in Slovenia. At the county Hall of Administration, Stukelj presented Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the Board of Supervisors with a bottle of wine, telling him it will ``keep him young,'' and help him to live ``99 years at least.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO From left, Tomaz Zajc, Mark Ryavec and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky accompany ex-Olympian Leon Stukelj, 98, at a ceremony Tuesday. Tom Mendoza/Daily News |
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