After going to school in his hometown Ljubljana, Stane Kmet studied pharmacy and chemistry in Innsbruck, Zagreb, Wien and Ljubljana, and obtained a PhD in 1925. He became a renowned pharmacist in his hometown. Around 1920, he started hiking and skiing in the Slovenian and Italian parts of the Alps, and later went to France and Bulgaria. He also promoted winter sports by giving skiing lessons from his vacation home in Maribor and worked as instructor for the Yugoslavian mountain infantry. During the early 1920s, he competed in Alpine and Nordic skiing as well as a luger. He then focused on Nordic skiing, with podium places at the national championships and occasionally competed internationally.
Yugoslavia
Slovenia