The small town of Novo Mesto in southeast Slovenia spent a whole year preparing for the centenary celebration of its most famous citizen.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee and an old friend, joined the birthday party. ``Leon Stukelj had been one of the most important athletes in the Olympic Games....He's honouring this sport, this country and the Olympic movement,'' Samaranch, who awarded the Olympic order to Stukelj in 1987, told reporters.

His country has not always been so generous in its hospitality. After World War II, Stukelj spent a month in prison in what was then Yugoslavia and was without a job for two years because he opposed the communistregime.

``I'm happy to be here. Thank you all for coming,'' Stukelj told reporters. ``I have a cold today and am here thanks to the fast work of antibiotics.''

Stukelj traces his longevity to eating moderately and drinking a glass of red wine every day. He still exercises on the rings he installed at home in Maribor over 50 years ago.

Bright-eyed, trim and energetic, he admits his feet still itch when he watches top gymnasts exercise today. ``That never goes away.'' Stukelj, whose portrait has been used on Slovenian stamps and coins, won his first Olympic gold medals on the horizontal bar and in the all-round event at the 1924 Games in Paris.

His golds were the first for Yugoslavia, then a new country created from the remnants of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires which crumbled in World War I. In 1991, Yugoslavia itself crumbled and Stukelj is now a citizen of independent Slovenia.

Four years after his golden double in Paris, Stukelj collected his third Olympic gold when he won on the rings at the1928 Amsterdam Games. He also claimed bronzes in the all-around and team events.

He missed the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics because the Yugoslav federation was unable to finance the trip but gained a silver on the rings at the age of 37 in Berlin in 1936, his last Olympic as a competitor.

He also has 14 medals from World Championships.

A meeting with American sprinter Jesse Owens, who won four golds in Berlin in 1936, is one of Stukelj's favourite memories.

A black-and-white photograph of him shaking hands with Owen can be seen at the national museum of Novo Mesto where a year-long exhibition was organised to mark his birthday.

Stukelj was an honorary guest of the Centennial Olympic Games-- just two years older than himself-- in Atlanta where he met U S President Bill Clinton. He hopes to attend the next Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 at the age of 102.