Slovenia at the 2016 Summer Olympics
| Slovenia at the 2016 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | SLO | ||||||||
| NOC | Slovenian Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website |
www |
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| in Rio de Janeiro | |||||||||
| Competitors | 60 in 12 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer |
Vasilij Žbogar (opening) Tanja Žakelj (closing) |
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Medals Ranked 45th |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
| Other related appearances | |||||||||
 Austria (1912) Yugoslavia (1920–1988) |
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Slovenia competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's seventh consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics as an independent nation.
The Slovenian Olympic Committee (Slovene: Olimpijski Komite Slovenije) fielded a team of 60 athletes, 36 men and 24 women, across 12 sports at the Games. It was the nation's fourth largest delegation sent to the Summer Olympics, but the smallest since 1996. Men's handball was the only team-based sport in which Slovenia qualified for the Games, returning to the Olympic scene after being absent from the previous two editions.
Of the 60 participants, twenty-one of them had past Olympic experience, with sailing legend Vasilij Žbogar (bronze in Laser, Athens 2004, and silver in Beijing 2008) headed to his fifth straight Games as the most experienced competitor and a potential medal favorite in the Finn class. The only medalist returning from the previous Games to compete in Rio de Janeiro, Žbogar was selected by the committee to lead the Slovenian delegation as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony. Other notable Slovenian athletes included world judo champion Tina Trstenjak in the women's 63 kg, two-time slalom kayak world champion Peter Kauzer, and whitewater canoeist and three-time world medalist Benjamin Savšek.
Slovenia left Rio de Janeiro with four medals (1 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze), which matched its overall tally from both Athens 2004 and London 2012. Among the nation's medalists were Trstenjak, who succeeded her personal hero Urška Žolnir to become the Olympic champion in the women's 63 kg; Kauzer, who improved upon his sixth-place feat from London by taking a silver in the men's slalom K-1; and Žbogar, who capped off his fifth Games with a silver and third overall of his Olympic career in the Finn class, making him one of the most successful Olympians in the history of independent Slovenia.
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