Primož Kozmus becomes Slovenia's first Olympic athletics gold medallist (© Getty Images)
After becoming the only Slovenian Beijing gold medalist and the first Track and Field gold medalist in my country's history, it still struck me how busy the last few months were for me. The flow of media and general public attention, interviews and invitations to different events just seemed endless!
But it was also a pleasant period of my life that I will never forget.
The post-Olympic reception in my hometown that was attended by thousands of people (even more then the total number of my hometown’s inhabitants), including our Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy, was simply extraordinary and I will forever be grateful to my neighbors, friends and acquaintances for preparing such a warm welcome for me. Not until these events that followed after returning home was I really aware of what I've really achieved.
I attended numerous invitations to events, organized by my sponsors and I even was featured in a TV-commercial by throwing a shopping bag and a schoolchild's bag instead of my hammer. I participated in a series of humanitarian actions, including an 8-km run and a charity donation of my hammer that was sold for a few thousand Euros.
The endless events I was invited to also included meeting numerous important and famous people, and I was extremely honoured to even be included on the list of invitees to a lunch with Queen Elizabeth of England during her visit to Slovenia in October.
Despite daily calls from journalists and attending all kinds of events, I managed to find time to spend a short holiday with my friends. We went sailing on the Croatian coast and I was really happy to finally be able to spend some relaxing time in the circle of my friends who I felt I was neglecting in the Olympic season that was so very important for me. The holiday was short, but very relaxing and fun and I even celebrated my birthday that week, so the timing of the holiday was perfect.
I also managed to pick up some new sponsors and besides focusing on my sport career I decided I will also try to search for some support in organizing different events and activities in connection to the hammer throw, because I strongly believe and strive for a wider and better recognition of my sport in Slovenia and also in other countries.
But my personal biggest priority for next season remains the World Championships in Berlin that I really look forward to. But there is still a lot of work to do before that.
So I returned to training a couple of weeks ago. I decided to leave Slovenia and start training in a coastal Croatian town, because I need more peace and quiet to devote myself to training only. I also need to work on my physical condition because I lost a few kilograms and because of the lack of training.
I will probably only return to Slovenia for the holiday season. The tradition of celebrating Christmas with my family and New Year's Eve with my friends means a lot to me, so this will be my final excuse for leaving out trainings before it gets serious again.
Lep Pozdrav,
Primož
