Whitewater slalom Whitewater slalom is the most successful
Olympic sport in modern-day Slovakia with 8 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals since 1993. Furthermore,
Slovakia has won 60 medals (25—18—17) at
World Championships, 91 medals (45—23—23) at
European championships and 35
World Cups since 1993. Apart from winning many World and European Championships, Slovak
canoeists collected medals in each
Summer Olympic Games since their first appearance in
Atlanta 1996. The most famous athletes are
Michal Martikán,
Pavol Hochschorner/
Peter Hochschorner,
Ladislav Škantár/
Peter Škantár,
Elena Kaliská,
Jana Dukátová,
Alexander Slafkovský and
Matej Beňuš. Table of all medals:
Biathlon Anastasiya Kuzmina has enjoyed success in
biathlon. At the
2010 Winter Olympics she won a gold in the
sprint and a silver in the
pursuit. She successfully defended her
sprint title at the
2014 Winter Olympics, and took a third gold in the
2018 Games in the
mass start, along with two silvers in the
pursuit and the
individual. In
season 2017/2018 she also took her first discipline World Cup titles, winning the Crystal Globes for the
sprint and
pursuit disciplines. In
season 2018/2019 she again won the Crystal Globes for the
sprint. She also won a gold medal in the sprint at the
2019 World Championships, a silver medal in the mass start race at the
2009 World Championships and a bronze in the sprint at the
2011 Worlds.
Martina Halinárová won a silver medal in the pursuit at the
1999 World Championships.
Pavol Hurajt took a bronze medal at the
2010 Winter Olympics in the
mass start.
Athletics Matej Tóth is olympic champion in
50 km walk at 2016. He also won a gold medal at the
2015 World Championship and two silver medals at the
2014 European Championships and
2018 European Championships.
Libor Charfreitag is European champion in a hammer throw at the
2010. He also won a bronze medal at the
2007 World Championships. Annual
marathons take place in Slovakia in places including
Košice,
Rajec and
Bratislava.
Canoe Sprint Slovakia has 3 silver and 1 bronze medals from
Olympic Games.
Slavomír Kňazovický won a silver medal in the
C-1 500 m at the
Atlanta 1996. Men's K-4 1000 m won two silver and one bronze medals at the Summer Olympic Games.
Slovakia has won 36 medals (16—9—11) at
World Championships and 45 medals (17—16—12) at
European championships.
Shooting Slovakia has 2 silver and 3 bronze medals from
Olympic Games.
Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková won two silver medals at the
2008 Summer Olympics and
2012 Summer Olympics. She also won two gold medals at the World Championship in
2010 and
2018 and two gold medals at the European Championships in 2015 and 2016.
Jozef Gönci won two bronze olympic medals in
Men's 50 m rifle prone at 1996 and in
Men's 10 m air rifle at 2004. Bronze medal has too
Danka Barteková from London 2012 in
Women's skeet.
Tennis Slovakia Fed Cup team won the Cup in
2002 and Slovakia Davis Cup team runner-up in
2005 Davis Cup. Also Slovakia won
Hopman Cup three times. 2016 WTA Finals Champion and 2014 Australian Open runner-up
Dominika Cibulková and 2008 Australian Open semi-finalist
Daniela Hantuchová are the most well known Slovak women's professional tennis players.
Martin Kližan who achieved a career high ATP ranking of 24 in April 2015 is the highest ranked Slovak men's professional player.
Cycling The best known Slovak cyclists currently competing are
Peter Sagan and brothers
Martin and
Peter Velits. Sagan won three stages of the
2011 Vuelta a España, and at the
2012 Tour de France he won three more stages and the
points classification. He repeated his victory in the points classification in the 2013 Tour and won another stage, and subsequently retained his points jersey in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. He won the Road Race World Championship in
2015,
2016 and
2017. Sagan also won two
Cycling monument on
Tour of Flanders and
Paris–Roubaix. He won on
2016 European Road Championships too. Peter Velits was classified second at the
2010 Vuelta a España after initial runner-up
Ezequiel Mosquera was disqualified for a positive test for
Hydroxyethyl starch. He and his
HTC Columbia team also won the race's initial
team time trial stage, and he won the race's
individual time trial on stage 17.
Skiing Veronika Velez-Zuzulová was a top-ranked slalom skier from her emergence in the mid-2000s until her retirement in 2018. Her best results in the World Cup season standings came in the
2016 and
2017 seasons, when she finished second in the slalom discipline. She also twice finished third in the
Alpine Skiing World Cup slalom standings: in
2008 and in
2013, a season in which she also scored two World Cup wins. She has since been followed by
Petra Vlhová, who won the slalom at the 2014 World Junior Championships before taking her first World Cup race win in December 2015 in a slalom in
Åre. Both were part of the Slovak team which took a surprise silver in the
team event at the
2017 World Championships in
St. Moritz. Petra Vlhová won a gold medal in the
giant slalom, a silver medal in the
combined and a bronze medal in the
slalom at the
2019 World Championships. She finished second in the
Alpine Skiing World Cup 2019 and also was second in the giant slalom and slalom. ==Largest football stadiums==