Miroslav Cerar (gymnast)

Miroslav Cerar (Slovene pronunciation: [ˈmíːrɔslaw ˈtsɛ̀ːrar]; born 28 October 1939) is a Yugoslav former gymnast and lawyer of Slovene ethnicity who won the pommel horse event at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics. He is also a four-time World champion and a ten-time European champion.

Domestically, Cerar won 13 national all-around titles and was chosen eight times as Yugoslavia's Athlete of the Year. He was awarded the Silver Olympic Order by the International Olympic Committee. He is a co-founder of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia and a member of the executive committee of the European Fair Play Movement.^[1]

Cerar was born on 28 October 1939 in Ljubljana,^[1] to parents Pavla and Ivan. His father was a naval officer during World War II who spent four years at the Dachau concentration camp. During this time, Cerar lived with his mother's parents in Turjak. He began gymnastics when he was nine years old because a teacher suggested it to improve his strength.^[2][3][4]

Cerar became the junior national all-around champion of Yugoslavia in 1956.^[5] He then won his first senior national all-around title in 1957 and would go on to win the title 12 more times.^[5][6] His first major international competition was the 1958 World Championships,^[6] and he won the bronze medal on the pommel horse behind Soviets Boris Shakhlin and Pavel Stolbov.^[7]

Cerar represented Yugoslavia at the 1960 Summer Olympics and finished fifth on the horizontal bar and eighth in the all-around.^[8][9] At the 1961 European Championships, he won his first European all-around title. Additionally, he won gold medals on the pommel horse, still rings, and parallel bars, and he won the vault bronze medal.^[10] He won his first World pommel horse title at the 1962 World Championships,^[11] where he also won the parallel bars title.^[12]

Cerar successfully defended his all-around title at the 1963 European Championships. There, he also won the pommel horse, still rings, and parallel bars titles. He also won a silver medal on the vault and a bronze medal on the floor exercise.^[13] Then at the 1963 Mediterranean Games, he won the all-around and pommel horse titles. Additionally, he won silver medals in the team event and on the floor exercise, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.^[14]

Cerar represented Yugoslavia at the 1964 Summer Olympics and was the flagbearer for the opening ceremonies.^[15] He won the gold medal on the pommel horse after posting the best scores in both the qualifying and final rounds.^[16] He also won the bronze medal on the horizontal bar behind Soviets Boris Shakhlin and Yuri Titov.^[17]

At the 1965 European Championships, Cerar won the gold medal on the parallel bars, the silver medals on the floor exercise and pommel horse, and the bronze medal on the still rings. He finished fourth in the all-around competition, missing the bronze medal by 0.050 points.^[18] He then won the all-around silver medal at the 1965 Summer Universiade, behind Japan's Akinori Nakayama.^[19]

Cerar won the pommel horse title at the 1966 World Championships and also won the parallel bars bronze medal.^[20] Then at the 1967 European Championships, he won the silver medal on the pommel horse and the bronze medal on the horizontal bar.^[21] He represented Yugoslavia at the 1968 Summer Olympics and successfully defended his pommel horse title.^[22][23]

Cerar won the pommel horse title at the 1969 European Championships, where he also won the parallel bars silver medal and the horizontal bar bronze medal.^[24] His final medal was a pommel horse gold at the 1970 World Championships held in his hometown of Ljubljana.^[5][6] He ended his gymnastics career after these World Championships.^[4]

Cerar was an attorney from 1973 until retiring in 2005.^[25] He owned his own law firm in Ljubljana.^[3] In 1991, Cerar helped co-found the Olympic Committee of Slovenia alongside fellow gymnast Leon Štukelj.^[6] He became a member of the executive committee of the European Fair Play Movement in 1994.^[1][6]

Cerar was voted Yugoslav Sportsman of the Year by Sportske novosti journalists eight times (1961–64, 1966, 1968–70).^[26] In 1984, the International Olympic Committee awarded him the Silver Olympic Order.^[27] In 1999, Cerar was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame,^[5] and in 2011 into the Slovenian Athletes Hall of Fame.^[28]

Cerar was married to Zdenka Cerar (née Prusnik), who was the first female State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia (1999–2004), Minister of Justice (2004) and vice-president of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS) political party. In her youth, she was a two-time junior national all-around champion in Yugoslavia and a member of the Yugoslav national team. After she ended her gymnastics career, she became a coach and referee.^[29] His son, Miro Cerar, is also a lawyer and a politician. He was Slovenia's prime minister from 2014 until 2018 and head of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) party.^[30] He also has two daughters, Alenka and Vesna, and has six grandchildren.^[25]

• Miroslav Cerar at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Miroslav Cerar at the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
• Miroslav Cerar at Olympics.com
• Miroslav Cerar at Olympedia