Stanko Bloudek was born on 11 February 1890 as son of a Czech father and a Slovenian mother in the Slovenian mining town of
Idrija. He attended school in
Most (in today's
Czech Republic), where his father worked in the local mining industry. After graduating from secondary school in 1908, Bloudek studied in Prague. At first, he studied at the
Academy of Arts, but found it was not his interest and switched to technical studies. He never graduated from the academy, but was nonetheless regarded as an engineer. Bloudek was engaged as a pioneer of flight. In 1910, when in Prague, he presented his first
monoplane called
Racek ('Gull'). A second one named
Libela ('dragonfly') followed in the next year. For some time he worked together with
Igo Etrich, inventor of the
Etrich Taube. Before World War I, he was employed in
Trutnov, today in the Czech Republic. At that time, he became interested in skiing. After the end of World War I, Bloudek moved to his mother's home in Ljubljana, and he lived in Ljubljana until his death. There he was also busy in developing flight, and he also showed interest in improving cars. In the 1920s, he and the
Ljubljana Aeroclub constructed another monoplane, named
Sraka ('Magpie'), and then a two-seat aircraft, named
Bloudek XV (nicknamed
Lojze). He ceased his work in 1934, when a test pilot of his plane, Janez Colnar, died during an airshow in Zagreb. In the 1930s, Bloudek designed the first Slovenian car,
Triglav, which was produced in 1934 by the
Automontaža company, where he was the main constructor until World War II. As an engineer, Bloudek was also engaged in building sports facilities. Based on his plans, the
Bloudek Giant, the
ski jumping hill in
Planica, was built in 1934. There the first jump over 100 m was achieved in 1936 by the Austrian
Sepp Bradl. At the time, this was the biggest jumping hill in the world, sometimes called "the mother of all jumping hills". Another ski jumping hill based on plans by Bloudek was built in the
Šiška District of Ljubljana in 1954 and existed until 1976. International competitions for the
Kongsberg Cup were organised there, attended by thousands of spectators. In Ljubljana, he also built and sometimes financed a number of other objects: the first modern football court, the first
Olympic-size swimming pool in
Yugoslavia (1929), tennis courts, the first
skating ring in Slovenia (at
Čufar Street, ), and other structures. Bloudek was also active in sports administration. In 1909, he participated in the establishing the football clubs
Hermes and
Ilirija. In 1919, he participated in founding the
Yugoslav Olympic Committee. He was a great friend of
Rudolf Cvetko, the first Slovene Olympic medalist, after he helped him keep his job and in promoting fencing in Ljubljana. From 1947 until 1951, he was the president of the
Yugoslav Olympic Committee. In 1948, Bloudek became a member of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was the only
Slovene to even be a member of the IOC. During World War II, he heavily financed the
Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation and was imprisoned for this in 1942 and 1945. in 1958, he became the first honorary member of the
Slovenian Football Association and in the following year led the renovation of the
Bežigrad Stadium. He died on 26 November 1959 while writing a letter regarding the construction of ski jumping hills across Yugoslavia. == Commemoration ==