Michal Martikán

At the age of 16, Michal Martikán became the youngest winner of a World Cup slalom canoeing event.[4] Three months later, at age 17, Martikán was in sixth place after the first run of the canoe slalom singles event at the 1996 Olympics. With nothing to lose, he went all out on the second run and just bettered the score of defending champion Lukáš Pollert of the Czech Republic. Martikán was the first Olympic champion to represent independent Slovakia. He entered the 2000 Olympics as the favourite, having consistently finished near the top in every major competition and in each World Cup series. At the Sydney Games, Martikán registered the best score in the qualifying round, but was only in fifth place after the first run of the final. In the second run, he paddled a perfect course and his time was the fastest of the round. He was able to move up to the silver medal position behind Tony Estanguet of France. Competing in his third Olympics in 2004, Martikán again led the qualifying round. He also earned the highest score in the semi-finals, which also served as the first run of the final. After the second run, it appeared that Martikán had regained the Olympic title, but the referees controversially decided to award him a two-second penalty which pushed him to second place, only 12 hundredths of a second behind Estanguet. Martikán regained the Olympic title at the 2008 games in Beijing.[5] At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London Martikán took bronze. Michal Martikán is the only slalom canoeist to win five Olympic medals, one in each of the five games from 1996 through 2012.

At the World Championships, Martikán had an uninterrupted medal run in the individual C1 event between 1995 and 2010. The 2011 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships saw him finish outside the medals for the first time in an Olympic or World Championship individual race in his career. Ironically, this failure came in front of a home crowd on the Čunovo course near Bratislava. However, he managed to win gold in the team event with his Slovak teammates to prolong his medal run. He won another six gold medals in the C1 team event between 2013 and 2019, making it 17 straight World Championships with a medal.

He won his first medals in 1995 when he was just 16. He took a bronze in the C1 event and another bronze in the C1 team event. In 1997 he won his first individual world title as well as team gold. He won the individual C1 event on three more occasions (2002, 2003 and 2007). As of 2019 he has a total of 23 World Championship medals (15 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronzes) which is more than any other slalom paddler in any category.

He has also won the overall World Cup title five times (1998, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2014), which is a record among C1 paddlers.

At the European Championships he has won four straight individual golds between 2007 and 2010. Slovakia won the C1 team event 11 times with him in the team. He also has 6 silvers (4 individual and 2 in team event) and 2 bronzes (1 individual and 1 in the team event).

Martikán is coached by his father Jozef.[6]

World Cup individual podiums

				Total
C1	20	10	12	42

Season	Date	Venue	Position	Event
1995	2 July 1995	Tacen	2nd	C1
1996	21 April 1996	Ocoee	1st	C1
	16 June 1996	Augsburg	3rd	C1
1997	6 July 1997	Bratislava	1st	C1
1998	21 June 1998	Tacen	1st	C1
	28 June 1998	Augsburg	3rd	C1
	13 September 1998	La Seu d'Urgell	1st	C1
1999	15 August 1999	Bratislava	3rd	C1
	22 August 1999	Augsburg	1st	C1
	3 October 1999	Penrith	2nd	C1
2000	30 April 2000	Penrith	1st	C1
	9 July 2000	La Seu d'Urgell	1st	C1
	30 July 2000	Augsburg	2nd	C1
2001	10 June 2001	Tacen	1st	C1
	29 July 2001	Augsburg	3rd	C1
	9 September 2001	Wausau	1st	C1
2002	21 July 2002	Augsburg	3rd	C1
	28 July 2002	Tacen	1st	C1
2003	11 May 2003	Penrith	3rd	C1
	6 July 2003	La Seu d'Urgell	1st	C1
	3 August 2003	Bratislava	2nd	C1
2004	23 April 2004	Athens	2nd	C1
	11 July 2004	Prague	3rd	C1
	25 July 2004	Bourg St.-Maurice	3rd	C1
2005	1 October 2005	Penrith	3rd	C11
2006	28 May 2006	Athens	1st	C1
	4 June 2006	Augsburg	2nd	C1
	11 June 2006	La Seu d'Urgell	3rd	C1
	2 July 2006	L'Argentière-la-Bessée	2nd	C12
	6 August 2006	Prague	2nd	C11
2007	30 June 2007	Prague	2nd	C1
	8 July 2007	Tacen	1st	C1
2008	16 March 2008	Penrith	1st	C13
2009	5 July 2009	Bratislava	1st	C1
2011	9 July 2011	Markkleeberg	1st	C1
2013	24 August 2013	Bratislava	1st	C1
2014	7 June 2014	Lee Valley	3rd	C1
	14 June 2014	Tacen	2nd	C1
	21 June 2014	Prague	1st	C1
	2 August 2014	La Seu d'Urgell	3rd	C1
2015	4 July 2015	Liptovský Mikuláš	1st	C1
2017	2 July 2017	Markkleeberg	1st	C1

¹ World Championship counting for World Cup points

² European Championship counting for World Cup points

³ Oceania Championship counting for World Cup points

• Slovak Sportsperson of the Year: 1996, 1997, 2007, 2008
• Inducted into the Whitewater Hall of Fame: 2010.[6]

In November 1997 Martikán was involved in a car accident near the village of Velké Zálužie, Slovakia.[7] The car he was driving hit a pedestrian causing him fatal injuries. The investigation concluded that Martikán was traveling substantially over the 40 km/h speed limit. It was also found that the killed man was highly intoxicated at the time of the accident, in dark outside the inhabited area.

With Martikán facing actual incarceration due to the violation of his probation terms (during his Australia's training camp he should process the license returning, a day after returning home while picking up the letter from the post office about driving license returning, the police surprisingly wait for him outside the building and he got in troubles...), then-president Rudolf Schuster, amid grave criticism, granted Martikán a presidential pardon,[8] which besides sparing him from jail time effectively meant removal of the conviction from his criminal record. Schuster argued that Martikán's positive athletic representation of the country abroad warranted the pardon, while critics pointed to the double standard and the preferential treatment Martikán was receiving as a sport celebrity.

• List of multiple Olympic medalists in one event
• List of multiple Summer Olympic medalists

• 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships 12 September 2010 C1 men's final results. – accessed 12 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine (archived 17 July 2011)
• 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships 12 September 2010 C1 men's team final results – accessed 12 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine (archived 17 July 2011)
• Final results of the men's C1 team slalom event for the 2009 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. – accessed 12 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 September 2009)
• Final results of the men's C1 event at the 2009 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. – accessed 13 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 September 2009)
• Kamber, Raymond, ed. (2008). Medal Winners – Olympic Games and World Championships (1936–2007) – Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines. CanoeICF.com. International Canoe Federation. pp. 42–83 at WebCite (archived 9 November 2009). Additional archives: 11 March 2016.

• Michal Martikán at the International Canoe Federation
• Michal Martikán at Olympics.com
• Michal Martikán at Olympedia
• Michal Martikán at Olympic.sk (in Slovak)
• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 17 July 2012)