The 1912 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad, took place in Stockholm. They were the first games at which athletes from all five continents competed, and the last games at which medals made of pure gold were awarded. Rudolf Cvetko competed at the games as one of seven members of the Austrian Empire's fencing team, which won the silver medal in the team event.
Rudolf Cvetko was the first Slovene to compete at the Olympic Games and the first to win an Olympic medal. He was born on 17 November 1880 in Senožeče. He attended school in Ljubljana and attended a four-year military academy in Trieste. After school, he served in the 16th Hungarian Infantry Regiment in Zagreb and Bjelovar, Croatia. He left the military in 1913, and found work as a physical education teacher at the state grammar school in Gorizia. He was reactivated at the beginning of World War I, and was awarded a bronze service medal in 1916. Following the war, he served as a weapons officer, but was forced to retire prematurely in 1926 due to his progressive thinking. He died in Ljubljana on 15 December 1977.
Rudolf Cvetko began attending fencing classes in 1904 in the gymnastics and fencing school of the Austro-Hungarian army in Wiener Neustadt. After 1905 he was a fencing instructor and judge, and the head teacher at fencing classes. He headed the fencing section at the Ilirija club following his retirement. After 1945 he focused his efforts on the development of young fencers and his work in the Slovenian Fencing Federation.
