Portrait of the Legend - Rok Benkovic
Rok Benkovic is definitely a legend of Slovenian ski jumping and important person, who despite the young age achieved a lot in the ski jumping world. In the age of 11 he began his adventure with ski jumping and as a 15-year-old he debuted in the national team. Then came his greatest results – he became the World Champion on the normal hill in the age of 19, becoming the very first Slovenian World Champion in ski jumping. But then in may 2007 in the age of only 21 he quit ski jumping and made everyone shocked.
Rok Benkovic (Foto: rok-benkovic.com)
Nobody expected that this young, talented athlete will end his sport career in age of only 21. It is the age in which most of the ski jumpers begin to achieve good results in the World Cup and they absolutely don’t think about quitting this sport. However, despite the fact that his career lasted such a short time, he was able to achieve a lot in this sport. Let's start from the beginning.
In the summer of 2001 he began his starts in the international area. In the Summer Continental Cup 2001 he took the very good 3rd place in the overall ranking, twice placing on the podium. Then he began jumping in the World Cup and in his debut in Predazzo took 48th place, but one day later he scored his first points by being ranked 26th. That was his only performance in the World Cup in this season and in the overall ranking he finished 77th.
The next season was more successful for Slovenian ski jumper. In 2002 he debuted in the Summer Grand Prix, and finished 4th in the overall standings. The World Cup season was more successful for him than year ago and Benkovic placed in the Top 30 many times and in the overall ranking he finished 41st.
In the season 2003/2004 began the most important successes of Slovenian ski jumper. In the Summer Grand Prix he finished 19th and the World Cup season he finished on 17th position. In the next season he finished 19th in the overall World Cup, but what is the most important he found himself in the team for the World Championships in Oberstdorf. Nobody expected that 19-year-old ski jumper will be able to win with the ski jumping stars like Jakub Janda, who finished second. One day later Benkovic won his second World Championships medal by being ranked 3rd in the team competition together with Jure Bogataj, Primoz Peterka and Jernej Damjan.
Rok Benkovič (Foto: Dare Čekeliš/24ur.com)
But then something broke. In the next season he was reaching places around the 30th position and wasn't able to repeat his big success. At the Olympic Games in Pragelato 2006 in the individual competitions he was ranked 49th and 29th. In his last season in career he finished the World Cup on 63rd position. After the 2006/2007 season in May he decided to quit ski jumping and focus on education. A lot of people was shocked, because they didn't expected a decision like this. He explained that he made this decision because his results weren’t as good as he expected recently and he could also not find the necessary motivation to continue.
