Matej Beňuš (born 2 November 1987) is a Slovak slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2002. He won a silver medal in the C1 event at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

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and a bronze medal in the same event at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. He also won 12 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 nine golds (C1 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 ...

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 ...

), one silver (C1 team:

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 ...

) and two bronzes (C1: 2011, C1 team:

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 ...

). He is a four-time 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 ...

champion in the C1 class (

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). 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 15 medals (8 golds, 3 silvers and 4 bronzes), including a silver in the C1 team event at the

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Career

Junior

His parents introduced him to this sport at a young age, and he took it up at age 11. His first major international competition was the 2002 World Junior Championships, where he finished 23rd in the C1 category. The following year he competed at the 2003 European Junior Championships, taking ninth place in the individual C1 and sixth place in the team event, with Ján Bátik and Peter Hajdu. He won his first medals in the 2004 season: gold at the European Junior Championships in Krakow in the individual C1 category and two silver medals at the World Junior Championships, in both individual and team events. The 2005 season was his last in the junior category, finishing 8th in the C1 event at the European Junior Championships and 4th in the C1 team event. In 2004, he was named the Junior of the Year and in 2005 the Talent of the Year by the Slovak Canoe Association.

U23

He first competed in the U23 category in 2004, achieving fifth place at the European U23 Championships in C1 team with

Alexander Slafkovský Alexander Slafkovský (born 11 March 1983) is a former Slovak Canoe slalom, 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 Champions ...

and Ján Bátik. Two years later, he finished fifth in individual and seventh in the team event and in 2007 he won his first medal in this category, bronze in C1 in Krakow. He added a silver medal at the 2008 European U23 Championships and gold a year later 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 ...

, both in individual C1 discipline. 2010 season was the last one he was eligible to start in U23 events. He won a silver medal in the individual and bronze in the team C1 competition at the 2010 European U23 Championships in

Markkleeberg Markkleeberg () is an affluent suburb of Leipzig, located in the Leipzig district of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. The river Pleiße runs through the city, which borders Leipzig to the north and to the west. Markkleeberg is known to be th ...

Senior

C1 Individual

His first major international senior competition was the 2007 European Championships, where he finished 15th. He also competed at the 2007 World Championships, finishing 29th. Two years later, he managed to enter the top ten, with the sixth place at the 2009 European and fifth at the 2009 World Championships. In that season, he also achieved his first podium at the

event, finishing

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

in Bratislava and placed fifth in the final World Cup ranking. In 2010 he won his first individual senior medal: silver at the

, when the Slovak canoeists swept all the podium positions. He also became the overall World Cup champion in C1 category. In 2011 he won his first and so far the only individual medal at the World Championships:

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

, on his home whitewater course and won his first World Cup race, placing

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in the final ranking. He was also named the 2011 Canoeist of the Year by the Slovak Canoe Association. Between 2010 and 2015 he always finished in top 3 in the final rankings of the World cup, after first and second place in 2010 and 2011 respectively, he was also third 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 ...

, second in

, third again in

and first in

. From 2013 to 2016 he always finished in top ten at major championships, with one ninth and two sixth places at the World Championships and two bronze medals (

and

) and one fifth place at the European level. In 2015, he was once again awarded the title of Slovak Canoeist of the Year. Beňuš finished the 2016 season as the World No. 1 in the C1 event. His biggest individual success is the silver medal at the

, where he prolonged Slovak medal streak in this discipline (first five medals in C1 were achieved by Michal Martikán). Beňuš also competed at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, finishing in 6th place in the C1 event.

C1 Team

At the World Senior championships, he has been a part of Slovak team since 2009, together with Martikán and Slafkovský. They have won the gold medal at every World Championship since then, with a total of nine gold medals (surpassing the record previously held by the USA). At the European Senior Championships he first competed in the team event in

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 ...

with Martikán and Juraj Minčík, immediately winning the gold medal. They repeated this success next year (with Slafkovský instead of Minčík), but finished eighth in

. At the 2010 European Championships held in his hometown they won the gold medal again and in

they finished fourth. Over the next five years they won 4 European titles together, with the exception of the 2014 season when Beňuš didn't make the national team selection.

Career statistics

Major championships results timeline

World Cup individual podiums

Personal life

He is married, his wife's name is Ivana and they have three children, Simon, Tobias, and Sebastián. His older sister Dana Mann is also a gold medalist from the 2011 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in K1 team category, together with

Elena Kaliská 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 ...

and Jana Dukátová. His mother

Jana Kubovčáková Jana Kubovčáková is a retired Czechoslovak Canoe slalom, slalom canoeist of Slovakia, Slovak nationality who competed in the 1970s. Kubovčáková participated in two ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, World Championships, winning a bronze ...

won a bronze medal in the K1 team event at the

1975 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships The 1975 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships were held in Skopje, Yugoslavia (in present-day North Macedonia) under the auspices of International Canoe Federation The International Canoe Federation (ICF) is the umbrella organization of all nat ...

. Beňuš is a practicing

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

who was raised and shaped at

Salesian The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales (), is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youth during the ...

Youth Center in Trnávka neighbourhood of

Ružinov Ružinov (, , ) is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, located in the Bratislava II district. It is the city's second most populated borough, housing over 80,000 inhabitants and its Nivy neighbourhood is the place of the emerging ne ...

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. ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benus, Matej Living people Slalom canoeists Slovak male canoeists 1987 births Sportspeople from Bratislava Canoeists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic canoeists for Slovakia Olympic silver medalists for Slovakia Olympic medalists in canoeing Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships Canoeists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Slovak Roman Catholics Canoeists at the 2023 European Games European Games silver medalists for Slovakia European Games medalists in canoeing Canoeists at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Slovakia Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century Slovak sportsmen