Slovakia’s smallest Olympic squad ever: Can they achieve the unthinkable?

Race walker Matej Tóth and trap shooter Zuzana Rehák Štefečeková are the only athletes in the era of independent Slovakia who have won a gold medal on land rather than on water at the Summer Olympics.

Canoe slalom is a showcase of the Slovak Olympic effort, with Michal Martikán, Elena Kaliská and brothers Peter and Pavol Hochschorner legends on a global scale.

28 years have passed since Martikán's first gold medal from the Atlanta Olympics; even after almost 30 years and 15 medals in total (8-4-3), Slovakia still has great Olympic hopes in canoe slalom.

Matej Beňuš, Jakub Grigar, Eliška Mintálová and Zuzana Paňková will compete in the Paris Olympics. The male representatives already know what it is like to win an Olympic medal; they won the silver in the Rio and Tokyo Olympics.

Awaiting individual gold

Slovak fans have the highest expectations of Beňuš. This will be his third Olympic Games and is in good form this season.

At the European Championship he ended up in fifth place because he touched a pole; after three World Cup races he leads the ranking. He won the silver at the 2023 European Games in Kraków at the turn of June and July.

This year, the competition at the Olympics is smaller due to several reasons.

Only a single athlete from each country can participate, and the qualifications turned out so that from the current Top 10 ranking only four competitors, including Beňuš, will compete in Paris.

However, canoe slalom is an unpredictable sport in which often even a small mistake cannot be remedied. After the Tokyo Olympics, Beňuš was disappointed because the single touch of a pole meant that instead of winning the bronze he ended up sixth.

Beňuš certainly belongs among the favourites, but it should be mentioned that as a senior, he is yet to win an individual gold medal. He has won 17 gold medals at the World Championships and European Championships, but all of them were C1 team races.