Stane Derganc

Who was Stane Derganc?

Stane Derganc a.k.a. Chainman was a Yugoslavian gymnast. At the 1928 Olympics, he won two bronze medals for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Today, he is also remembered as the man depicted on the Verigar stamps, the first stamp series in the Slovene language.

Stane Derganc was born in Ljubljana. He took part in two Olympic Games for Yugoslavia, and two gymnastics World Championships. At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, he came in fourth place in the individual combined event, and fifth in the floor event, and seventh in the pommel horse were his best results in the individual appartus. At the next event, in 1928 he took bronze in the team event and individual floor event.

At the World Championships, he won many medals. At his first World Championships, in 1922 in Yugoslavia, he was part of the Yugoslav team which took silver in the team event, behind Czechoslovakia. He also took bronze in the individual overall event, and silver in the horizontal bar. He also took part in the next World Championships, in Lyon, France in 1926. There, Yugoslavia again won silver in the team event. He won no individual medals at this World Championships.