SSL Team SLO – By Sailors for Sailors

THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP... IN SAILING

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS | 8-11 June 2026 | Grandson, Switzerland

FINALS | 15 Nov - 13 Dec 2026 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 1

11:00

08 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

EST

AUT

SLO

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 2

13:30

09 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

EST

AUT

SLO

Results

Replay

EUROPEAN QUALIFIERS

G1 - Race 3

14:00

09 June 2026

SWITZERLAND

Participants

EST

AUT

SLO

Results

See All Races

News

Two European Teams United on the Road to Rio!

The wind confounded us for a second day in a row at the SSL Gold Cup European Qualifiers on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, but thanks to results in the three races…

DateYesterday at 19:37

A day of all sorts, then AP over A

It’s sometimes difficult to know which is more tiring: a long day on the water racing or a long day on the water waiting. A long day waiting is what…

DateWednesday at 17:56

Day 2 – European Qualifiers SSL Gold Cup – Slovenia Krpani 1860

Slovenia Krpani 1860 The teams lined up for race 2 with Estonia and Lithuania powering across the line perfectly, while Austria were a fraction late at the Committee Boat end.…

DateTuesday at 21:41

KRPANI 1860

Stay strong and never give up.

A STRONG TEAM FROM A SMALL NATION

Slovenia is a tiny country of only 2 million inhabitants, but the fame gained through top-notch sports achievements can not be disputed, and that includes sailing too. Our sailors have been decorated with World, European, and Olympic medals, we had match racing champions or successful sailing projects. Slovenian sailing is also known for groundbreaking designers and producers of sailing boats, like Andrej Justin who designed the RC44 together with one of the world’s greatest sailing legends Russell Coutts. Our athletes proved with exceptional results that Slovenes, given the number of inhabitants and the size of our own seacoast, are a true world miracle. The story of Martin Krpan is a Slovenian story about the fight between a simple little man and a giant. Martin Krpan is a man of the people, who on account of his physical strength and a lightness of heart becomes a real and authentic Slovenian superhero. Therefore, it was a logical choice to lend his name to the team. When the company Steklarna Hrastnik became the general sponsor, it turned out that the year of the company’s founding, 1860, represents the time when the legend of the brave and invincible Slovenian hero Krpan was born, so we added the number we share in common to our name: Krpani1860.

Statistics

THE COUNTRY

50.000 nautical passionate
800 sailors
65 sailing clubs
46,6 km of seacoast ;)

ACHIEVEMENTS

2 Olympic silver medals
1 Olympic bronze medal

Ssl ranking

SSL best ranked woman:Tina Mrak
SSL best ranked man:Igor Lah
SSL nations ranking:30 (February 2023)

MAIN EVENTS

Easter Regatta (Portorož) > 400+participants
Spring Cup (Izola) > 300+ participants

46,6 - km

46,6 – km is the length of the Slovene seacoast, that raised our sailors to win 3 Olympic medals, and many European and world titles in the most prestigious regattas

The captain

VASILIJ ŽBOGAR

Three-time Olympic medalist, Vasilij has joined Slovenia’s Olympic sporting legends and became the best Slovene sailor of all time. He achieved Olympic decoration in two different sailing classes, bronze (Athens 2004) and silver (Beijing 2008) in Laser and silver (Rio 2016) in Finn class, and altogether won 6 European medals and 1 World. He has also been a tactician of the unbeatable Esimit Europa 2 crew. Vasilij is more than ever ready for new challenges in sailing, bringing a wealth of his experience to the SSL GOLD CUP.

THE LEADERS

Igor Lah

He gained the status of No. 1 skipper in SSL ranking with his CEEREF crew in the 44 CUP class with the title of world champion. An otherwise successful businessman and lover of contemporary art.

Tina Mrak

Tina Mrak took part in three Olympic Games in the 470 class, first in a crew with Teja Černe in London 2012, then she started sailing with Veronika Macarol, with whom they became European champions twice (Aarhus 2015, Bourgas 2018), a bronze medal from the world championships medal from Thessaloniki 2017, at the Rio 2016 Olympics they finished in a strong 6th place, and Tokyo 2020 brought them an excellent final 5th place after fighting for a medal in the last regatta. From 2022, Tina sails in the mixed crew of the Olympic two-seater 470.

Tomaž Čopi and Mitja Margon

Tomaž Čopi and Mitja Margon paved the Slovenian sailing story of success in the 470 class. They competed at the Olympics in Atlanta 1996 and in Sydney 2000, won a silver at the World Championship (1998) and two silvers at the European Championships (1998, 1999). Čopi competed at the Olympics with another partner one more time in Athens 2004. Today they are both racing together again as part of Team Nika racing in the RC44 class, with 3 world champion titles.

THE YOUTH FACTOR

The ongoing sports achievements make it clear that Slovenian sailing is built on a solid foundation. In the last five years alone, we have had a world champion in the Optimist class and in the U19 Finn class, including medals among juniors from the world championships in the Laser 4.7. The program of work with young sailors is main priority of the national sailing association.

Confirmed Athletes

CAPTAIN | 10

HELM | 8

Floater | 11

BOW | 1

TRIMMER | 7

TRIMMER | 6

TBD | TBD

PIT | 3

TBD | TBD

Trimmer | 5

GRINDER | 4

Main Trimmer | 7

Potential Team Position

1 BOW Gašper Strahovnik	2 MID BOW
3 PIT Vid Jeranko	4 GRINDER Iztok Knafelc
5 TRIMMER Veronika Macarol	6 TRIMMER Mitja Margon
7 MAIN TRIMMER Mitja Beltram	8 HELMS Igor Lah
9 TACTICIAN Branko Brčin	10 CAPTAIN Vasilij Zbogar
11 FLOATER Tina Mrak /Lah Tine

BOW

Gašper Strahovnik

MID BOW

PIT

Vid Jeranko

GRINDER

Iztok Knafelc

TRIMMER

Veronika Macarol

TRIMMER

Mitja Margon

MAIN TRIMMER

Mitja Beltram

HELMS

Igor Lah

TACTICIAN

Branko Brčin

CAPTAIN

Vasilij Zbogar

FLOATER

Tina Mrak /Lah Tine

SQUAD

Vasilij Zbogar	Tomaž Čopi
Mitja Margon	Tina Mrak
Igor Lah	Mitja Beltram
Jaro Furlani	Veronika Macarol
Jani Klemenčič	Nik Pletikos
Vid Jeranko	Tony Vodisek
Gašper Strahovnik	Matej Planinšič
Lara Poljšak	Branko Brčin
Iztok Knafelc	Karlo Hmeljak
Ferneti Jaš	Simon Košuta Sivitz
Lah Tine