Parents of Slovenian Olympian pay tribute to Beijing Games with 45km walk

LJUBLJANA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Parents of Anita Klemencic, a Slovenian Olympic cross-country skier, paid tribute to her attendance at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games by walking from the Chinese Embassy in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana to their home village Zvirce in northwestern Slovenia on Sunday.

They walked for 45 kilometers which took them seven hours, not calculating a lunch which they had at a Chinese restaurant on the way.

"It was a Chinese day for us. About ten years ago I promised my two daughters, who are both cross-country skiers, that I will walk home from the Olympic Games if any of them will attend the Games," Anita's father Dejan Klemencic, who is a policeman, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday.

"I was saved by the COVID-19," he added. "As I could not go to China and I decided to fulfill my promise in a symbolic way by walking home from a Chinese embassy."

He pointed out that this is the first major competition of his daughters that he and his wife were not able to attend.

He said his daughter, who has never competed at the Olympic Games before, was enjoying the games and was impressed by the opening ceremony.

"It is a shame that she will not be able to see other competitions on the ground but the most important thing is that she is there, that she is able to compete," He added that Anita overcame COVID-19 in January and was really happy to test negative before going to China.

Dejan Klemencic himself was thrilled by the opening ceremony. "If your child is attending the ceremony you see it in a completely different light."

"I am very proud that my daughter is at the Olympics, she has been training for 17 years and had to give up many things for her sport. If she will manage to place herself among the first 30 competitors, it will be like a gold medal for me."

His daughter starts her Olympic competitions with a cross-country sprint on Tuesday.