At its 51st award ceremony, the Slovenian Association of Sports Journalists presented awards for best athletes of 2018 in Ljubljana’s Gallus Hall in the Cankarjev Dom.

Dončić succeeds Dragić
Last year Goran Dragić was named best individual sportsman, and he has been succeeded this year by another basketball player from the European basketball champions – Luka Dončić (260 votes). Primož Roglič (163 votes) and Jakov Fak (116 votes) followed suit.
At the age of 19, Luka is dazzling the world's basketball courts. With Real Madrid, he won the EuroLeague title and was named the finals’ MVP, after which he moved to the world's strongest league, the NBA, to become the Western Conference Rookie of the Month at the start of the NBA season.

Garnbret is the sportswoman of the year
Sport climber Janja Garnbret stepped into the shoes of Ilka Štuhec, becoming the best sportswoman of 2018. This year, Garnbret (276 votes) has again made history by being the only person in the world having three world championship titles in three different disciplines. She was also the winner in a new discipline, in the Olympic Combined format. Judoist Tina Trstenjak (217 votes) and tennis player Kaja Juvan (40 votes) came in second and third.

Sailing team succeeds the basketball players
Last year the award for the best team went to the golden national basketball team, while this year the award was presented to the sailing team 470 Tina Mrak-Veronika Macarol (34 votes). The national canoeing team, comprised of Benjamin Savšek, Luka Božič and Anže Berčič (25 votes), came in second and the Slovene national futsal team was third (16 votes).

Pogačar is the most promising
Award for the most outstanding young personality of the year went to cyclist Tadej Pogačar, who succeeded Luka Dončić. Pogačar was the key man in the Slovene national team of young riders in the Nations’ Cup and he was also the winner of the most prestigious stage race Tour de l'Avenir in this category. He also won the Peace Race.