Miroslav CERAR

Miroslav Cerar is often considered the greatest ever practitioner on the pommeled horse. In addition to his Olympic gold medals in 1964 and 1968 on the pommeled horse, he was European Champion in 1961 and 1963 and World Champion in 1962 and 1966, also winning silver on pommels at the 1965 Europeans and bronze at the 1958 Worlds. Cerar was also a top all-around gymnast, however, winning gold medals in the all-around at the 1961 and 1963 European Championships. He also won a gold medal on parallel bars at the 1962 Worlds, bronze in that event at the 1966 Worlds, and bronze on the horizontal bar at the 1964 Olympics. At the Europeans he won 15 medals, nine of them gold.

Domestically, Cerar was Yugoslavian champion 13 times, after first winning the junior title in 1956, and was voted Yugoslavia’s Athlete of the Year on nine occasions. Cerar was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1999 and was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver by the IOC. He has served with the Slovenian Olympic Academy, the Fair Play Commission of the Slovenian Olympic Committee, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Fair Play Movement.