The figure of a gymnast on the tombstone of the young man buried here is a multifaceted symbol. Just as it represents a sporting activity that was once the showpiece of the city on the Drava River, it is also a symbol of the tragic accident of a promising young gymnast. A gymnastics competition with a tradition spanning several decades is named after Ivan Šalamun, a promising gymnast who was fatally injured while performing a demanding exercise.
The beginnings of Slovenian gymnastics in Maribor date back to 1907, when the Sokol Maribor sports association was founded. Its members played an important role in shaping national identity and later in the battles for the northern border. Their contribution to the field of gymnastics is particularly valuable. A good two decades after the association was founded, the male part of the team reached the world top. In the following decade, the Maribor Sokols Leon Štukelj and Josip Primožič won six medals at the Olympic Games (gold, two silver and three bronze) and nine medals at the World Championships (six gold and three bronze). In particular, Primožič's extraordinary achievement, who won five gold medals at the World Championships in Luxembourg in 1930, deserves special mention. That same year, a new Sokol club was founded in Maribor, Sokol Maribor I., which joined the old one.
Thirty-one years later, when the club had already been renamed the Železničar Sports and Recreation Association, a team of young gymnasts set off for Ljubljana. Among them was the promising young gymnast Ivan Šalamun. Another member of the team, Mr. Darko Šoštarič, remembers: "We had a group routine ready, which included an attractive element on a kind of seesaw, which allowed one gymnast to bounce off the other and perform a somersault". Before the performance, they had a general rehearsal, during which Šoštarič and Špendl were nervous, so they did not perform the somersault. After finishing the exercise, they tried again. "Ivan also wanted to try again, but unfortunately it was his last jump. The spotlights blinded him, he pushed off too quickly and there was too much rotation. He hit his head on the concrete and died three days later in hospital as a result". In 1967, friends from the Železničar gymnastics club came up with the idea of organizing a memorial competition, which they named after their tragically deceased colleague.
The Šalamun Memorial was later considered one of the highest-quality competitions in Yugoslavia. In 1974, it became an international competition, later the venue for the World Cup... The annual gymnastics competition is a fixture of sporting events in the city on the Drava River. It preserves the memory of friendship and cooperation that led to success, of happy and tragic stories.