Alexander Slafkovský (born 11 March 1983) is a former Slovak slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1998 to 2023, specializing in the C1 event. Slafkovský won 15 medals at the

ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships are an international event in canoeing organized by the International Canoe Federation. The World Championships have taken place every year in non- Summer Olympic years since 2002. From 1949 to 1999, they ...

with ten golds (C1 team:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

), five silvers (C1: 2013, 2017,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, C1 team: 2022) and one bronze (C1 team:

). At the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

he won a total of 22 medals (12 golds, 7 silvers and 3 bronzes), including a silver in the C1 team event at the

2023 European Games The 3rd European Games (), also known as the 2023 European Games or Kraków-Małopolska 2023, was an international multi-sport event held from 21 June to 2 July 2023 in Kraków and Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Małopolska, Poland. It was the first ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Slafkovský also won the overall

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

title in the C1 class in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

. He finished the 2017 season as the World No. 1 in the C1 event. In spite of being one of the top C1 paddlers of his generation, he has never competed at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, where during his career only one boat per country has been allowed to race in each discipline. First he was denied qualification by

Michal Martikán Michal Martikán (; born 18 May 1979) is a Slovak slalom canoeist who has been competing at the international level since 1994. In 1996 he became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for Slovakia since the country gained independence ...

in 2004. Due to an injury sustained while skiing, he missed most of the 2007 season, which prevented him from competing for a spot at the 2008 Games. He lost to Martikán again in the internal fight for the 2012 games and then to

Matej Beňuš Matej Beňuš (born 2 November 1987) is a Slovak Canoe slalom, slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2002. He won a silver medal in the Canoeing at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's slalom C-1, C1 event at the 2016 ...

in the three subsequent cycles (2016, 2020 and 2024). Slafkovský announced his retirement from the sport in 2024.

Personal life

His father, who is also named Alexander, is a former mayor of Liptovský Mikuláš and his second cousin

Juraj Slafkovský Juraj Slafkovský (born 30 March 2004) is a Slovak professional ice hockey forward for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected first overall in the 2022 NHL entry draft by the Canadiens, the highest-drafted ...

is an ice hockey player.

Career statistics

Major championships results timeline

World Cup individual podiums

¹ European Championship counting for World Cup points :

² Oceania Championship counting for World Cup points

References

12 September 2009 final results of the men's C1 team slalom event for the 2009 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.
– accessed 12 September 2009.
2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships 12 September 2010 C1 men's final results
– accessed 12 September 2010.
ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936–2007.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Slafkovsky, Alexander Living people Slovak male canoeists 1983 births Canoeists from Liptovský Mikuláš Medalists at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships Canoeists at the 2023 European Games European Games silver medalists for Slovakia European Games medalists in canoeing 21st-century Slovak sportsmen