About us

The Olimpija Ice Hockey Club was founded in 2004 with the primary mission of nurturing and educating young hockey players and promoting ice hockey in the Slovenia’s capital city Ljubljana and its surroundings.

Olimpija Ljubljana is a club with a clear vision, a strong men’s team, and a broad base of young hockey players. Our objective is to achieve top results with the men’s team while also ensuring the development of new players in youth categories in the spirit of fair play and values such as respect, collegiality, persistence and dedication. We swear by Slovenian sports expertise and aim to provide young Slovenian hockey players with international experiences.

We are committed to a professional and expert approach in all categories. We are members of the Slovenian Ice Hockey Federation and collaborate with other domestic and foreign hockey clubs and associations. The club has over 200 registered players across various categories: from beginners in the youth programme to the senior team, including a women’s team. We enrol children as young as 4 years old in the youngest category – the Olimpija Hockey School.

We are engaged in the education and training of young hockey players and the promotion of ice hockey in the Ljubljana area and its surroundings. We compete in the National Championship under the patronage of the Slovenian Ice Hockey Federation, in domestic and international tournaments in all categories, and our men’s and women’s teams also compete in international competitions. In the 2017/18 season, the team of HK Olimpija competed for the first time in the international AHL League and won the AHL Cup in the 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 seasons. After three successful years in the Alps Hockey League, we joined the newly formed ICE Hockey League (formerly the EBEL league) in the season 2021-2022. In the subsequent seasons of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, we remained members of the ICE Hockey League. In the 2022-2023 season, we became the first Slovenian hockey team to participate in the Champions Hockey League.

We are very proud of our women’s team. We are one of the three Slovenian clubs that also have a women’s team.

Our organisation organizes tournaments, a summer hockey camp, and every December, a large international tournament called “Zmajček” (Little Dragon) for youngsters, which is attended by over three hundred children and parents from abroad. The tournament has become a traditional December gathering for young hockey players and has become one of the most recognizable tournaments for young hockey players in the region.

Olimpija Ljubljana operational management:

President: Miha Butara

General Manager: Anže Ulčar

General Secretary: Mark Sever

Alexandre Lefebvre

VICE PRESIDENT 

Alexandre is lifelong ice hockey enthusiast. He is devoted husband and father of three children. His family has ties to Slovenia. His wife and children are Slovenian citizens. During his successful career he was leading large companies and was member of many boards. Now he is CEO of BMR Group with over 8.000 employees, Executive VP at Sollio (largest Canadas agri-food cooperative) and owner of Lefevbre&Benoit (leading distributer of building material sector and steel stud manufacturer). He was named one of Canada’s TOP 40 under 40.

Dušan Mes

VICEPRESIDENT

Dušan is a sports enthusiast and successful manager. During his career he was leading companies as G7, SCT and Casino Portorose and was member of many supervisory boards. Last 12 years he has been successfully leading Slovenian Railways. During his leadership Slovenian railways transformed into a modern and successful company with 7.000 employees. He is also President of the Slovenian Chess Federation. He is a family man and devoted father to 3 daughters.He is part of Clubs management board since season 2017/2018.

Miha Butara

PRESIDENT

Miha has been leading the Club since season 2017/2018. He is Deputy director General at Slovenian Railways and supervisory board member at different companies. As manager and supervisory board member he was working at Telekom Slovenije group, Casino Portorose, JHL, GEN energija, OKS and others. He is VP of Slovenian Ice Hockey Federation. Miha is a family man, devoted husband and father of 2 daughters.