One of Slovenia's greatest basketball players of all time, Goran Dragić has raised €886,000 as ambassador of a charity foundation that helps aspiring athletes from underprivileged families in the most successful year for the project yet, handing over the sponsorship to Olympic climbing champion Janja Garnbret.

Dragić bid farewell as ambassador of the charity foundation of the Slovenian Olympic Committee at a gala fund-raising event in Ljubljana on 8 November, which raised €120,000 for the cause.

Dragić said he would remember the year 2024 forever, not only because of his farewell game but also because of his role as charity ambassador. "Sport shapes us, but it mostly unites us," he said.

Retiring as a professional athlete after 15 seasons in the NBA, Dragić hosted a charity exhibition game at Stožice Arena in August featuring NBA stars and retired legends of the sport.

Capping a successful year as charity ambassador for the Slovenian Olympic Committee, Gogi as he is known to friends and fans handed the baton to Garnbret for a year.

Garnbret, who defended her Olympic gold in Paris this year by winning the women's boulder & lead event, was "happy, proud and honoured" to accept the role.

"Enjoy it and do it with a smile on your face," the 38-year-old basketball star advised the climber, 13 years his junior, who answered with a laugh: "Oh, that's pressure." But she said she never had problems with motivation.

As the ambassador last year cycling star Primož Roglič helped raise a record amount of money by then, over €200,000, and the year before skiing star Tina Maze raised €EUR 135,000.

The Slovenian Olympic Committee started the charity foundation in 2015 at the initiative of the former head of the Slovenian Olympic movement, Bogdan Gabrovec.

Its first ambassador was Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, followed by UEFA boss Aleksander Čeferin, and then Maze.

Last year the foundation was named after legendary Slovenian gymnasts Leon Štukelj and Miro Cerar.

For the past four years the foundation has been collaborating with the Botrstvo sponsorship scheme for children in sports and the Moste Polje Association of the Friends of Youth in Ljubljana in providing financial support to talented children aged between 14 and 23, who must also do well at school to receive the funds.