Tibor Sýkora (born 18 September 1938) is a former Czechoslovak slalom canoeist of Slovak nationality who competed in the 1960s. He won a gold medal in the C1 team event at the

1961 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships The 1961 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships were held in Hainsberg, East Germany under the auspices of International Canoe Federation The International Canoe Federation (ICF) is the umbrella organization of all national canoe organizations wo ...

Hainsberg Hain is a village and a former municipality in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 31 December 2013, it is part of the municipality Langenwetzendorf Langenwetzendorf is a municipality in the Greiz (district), district of Greiz, ...

. He also finished 5th in the individual C1 event at the same World Championships. Sýkora started out as a middle distance runner, but had to change sports after tearing both his achilles heels in 3000m steeplechase run. In 1970 he and another canoeist saved the lives of a man and a four-year old girl after their boat capsized on the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, a feat for which they received an award from the Czechoslovak president. Unfortunately, though, they were unable to rescue the girl's mother.

References

Czechoslovak male canoeists Slovak male canoeists Living people 1938 births Medalists at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships {{Slovakia-canoe-bio-stub