Elena Kaliská (born 19 January 1972) is a retired Slovak slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1988 to 2019. She specialized in the K1 event, which was the only discipline available for women during the vast majority of her career. Competing in four

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

, she won two gold medals in the K1 event, earning them in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Kaliská also won five 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 two golds (K1:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, K1 team:

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 ...

), two silvers (K1:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, K1 team:

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 ...

) and a bronze (K1 team:

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 ...

). She has 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 6 times (2000-2001, 2003–2006), which is a record the K1 discipline. 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 ...

she won a total of 16 medals (8 golds, 4 silvers and 4 bronzes). In 2021, she won a gold medal in K1 at inaugural ICF Masters Canoe Slalom World Championship in Kraków. She announced her retirement from the sport during the 2021 World Championships in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, where she performed demo runs. Kaliská began competing in canoe slalom as soon as 1979.

Career

Kaliská represented Czechoslovakia at two World Junior Championships, winning a silver medal in the K1 team event in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and finishing 4th in the K1 event. She made her

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

debut in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

in Mezzana where she finished 9th in the K1 event. Her first medal came at the

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, where she took bronze. She followed it up with another bronze one week later at the inaugural European Championships in

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

. She recorded her first World Cup win in 1998 on her home course in

Liptovský Mikuláš Liptovský Mikuláš (; until 1952 ''Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš'', ; ) is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River, about from Bratislava. It lies in the Liptov region, in Podtatranská kotlina, Liptov Basin near the Low Tatra and Tat ...

and followed it up by winning her first European title in

Roudnice nad Labem Roudnice nad Labem (; ) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an Cultural monument (Czech Rep ...

. In

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

she won the overall World Cup title in K1 for the first time in her career. She defended the title in 2001 and then went on to win four consecutive titles from 2003 to 2006. Her dominance was most pronounced in 2004, when she won 4 out of 6 World Cup races (having only started in 5 races). Despite her success in the World Cup, she had to wait until 2004 to claim her first major global medal. She finally broke through by winning the Olympic gold at the Athens games. One year later she claimed her only individual world title in Penrith. In order to qualify for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

, she had to defeat the 2006 World Champion Jana Dukátová in the internal qualification. She managed to secure her spot by taking silver medal at the 2007 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. She won the 2008 Olympic gold in a dominant fashion, winning the heats, semifinal run and the final run. In a race where many of the big favorites struggled she was able to stay clean and win by a margin of 14.30 seconds. Kaliská had a long career spanning several decades, similar to her great rival Štěpánka Hilgertová in longevity and success. She had her final international race in 2019 and officially retired in 2021. She won all the major accolades that the sport of canoe slalom has to offer - Olympic gold, World Championship gold, World Cup and European Championships.

Career statistics

Major championships results timeline

World Cup individual podiums

¹ World Championship counting for World Cup points :

² European Championship counting for World Cup points :

³ Oceania Championship counting for World Cup points

References

12 September 2009 results of the women's K1 team finals at the 2009 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.
- accessed 12 September 2009. * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaliska, Elena 1972 births Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Living people Olympic canoeists for Slovakia Olympic gold medalists for Slovakia Slovak female canoeists Sportspeople from Zvolen Olympic medalists in canoeing Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships