Elena Kaliská

Elena Kaliská
Elena Kaliská 2011
nation	Slovakia
birthday	January 19, 1972
place of birth	Zvolen ,  Czechoslovakia
size	172 cm
Weight	65 kg
Career
society	Dukla Liptovský Mikuláš
National squad	Since 1993
status	active
Medal table
Olympic medals 2 × 0 × 0 × World Cup medals 2 × 2 × 1 × EM medals 7 × 5 × 3 ×
Olympic games gold 2004 Athens K-1 gold 2008 Beijing K-1

Elena Kaliská (born January 19, 1972 in Zvolen ) is a Slovak canoeist ( canoe slalom ). She is a two-time Olympic champion and multiple European and world champion in single kayaks (K-1).

Career

Kaliská, who competes for the Dukla Liptovský Mikuláš club, celebrated her first international start at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Val Di Sole in 1993 . There she reached ninth place in K-1. Two years later at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Nottingham in 1995 , she finished 19th. The Slovakian finally celebrated her first medal at the European Canoe Slalom Championships in Augsburg in 1996 , where she won bronze in a single kayak. Kaliská had previously made her Olympic debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and was ranked 19th in the one. At the 1997 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Três Coroas , she was able to improve her performance significantly compared to 1995 and was seventh in the end. Two years later at the European Canoe Slalom Championships in Roudnice nad Labem in 1998 , she won her first title in this discipline. In 2000 the European championship title followed in the team classification. Before that, she had only achieved sixth place at the 1999 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Sen d'Urgell . At the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000 , Kaliská narrowly missed a medal and ended up fourth in the single.

In the canoe slalom European Championships 2002 in Čunovo in Bratislava won Kaliska her second individual title. At the following world championship in Bourg Saint Maurice she had to give up again to the strong competition and was only tenth in the end. At the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Augsburg in 2003 , she also did not make it to the top of the list and ended up in 11th place.

In Athens , Kaliská achieved her first Olympic victory in her favorite K-1 discipline at the 2004 Summer Olympics . At the following European Canoe Slalom Championships in 2004 in Skopje , she defended her individual title again and also won silver with the team. A little later she was elected Slovak athlete of the year 2004. A year later she finally made it into the top of the world at the Canoe Slalom World Championships in Penrith in 2005 . So she won her first and only individual world championship there.

At the following European Canoe Slalom Championships in 2006 in L'Argentière-la-Bessée , she won both K-1 gold medals in the individual and with the team. A year later she had to be content with the silver medal in her hometown Liptovský Mikuláš.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , Kaliská was the flag bearer of the Slovak delegation at the opening ceremony. A little later, she won the gold medal in a single kayak, becoming an Olympic champion in this discipline for the second time in a row.

With the renewed European title at the European Canoe Slalom Championships 2009 in Nottingham Kaliská won her last individual medal at international level. She could only win two bronze medals with the team in 2011 and 2012. At the Canoe Slalom World Championships 2011 in Bratislava she managed to win again with the team. At the 2014 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Deep Creek Lake , she won bronze in the team competition together with Jana Dukátová and Kristína Nevařilová .

Over the years Kaliská has won the World Cup a total of six times. With victories in 2000, 2001 and from 2003 to 2006, she holds the women's record.

successes

Olympic Summer Games

• 2004 Athens : Gold
• 2008 Beijing : Gold

World championships

• 2005 Penrith : Gold
• 2007 Foz do Iguaçu : Silver
• 2009 La Seu d'Urgell : Silver (team championship)
• 2011 Bratislava : Gold (team competition)
• 2014 Deep Creek Lake : Bronze (team championship)

European championships

• 1996 Augsburg: bronze
• 1998 Roudnice nad Labem: Gold
• 2000 Mezzana: Gold (team competition)
• 2002 Bratislava: Gold
• 2004 Skopje: Gold
• 2004 Skopje: Silver (team classification)
• 2005 Tacen: Silver (team classification)
• 2006 L'Argentière-la-Bessée: Gold
• 2006 L'Argentière-la-Bessée: Gold (team championship)
• 2007 Liptovský Mikuláš: Silver (team championship)
• 2008 Krakow: Silver (team classification)
• 2009 Nottingham: Gold
• 2009 Nottingham: Silver (team championship)
• 2011 La Seu d'Urgell: Bronze (team classification)
• 2012 Augsburg: Bronze (team classification)

Web links

Commons : Elena Kaliská  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Elena Kaliská in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Profile on osobnosti.sk (Slovak)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Víťazkou ankety Športovec roka sa stala strelkyňa Štefečeková ( Slovak ) In: Pravda . December 21, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
2. ↑ Slovakia ( English ) In: Sports-Reference.com . Retrieved November 23, 2014.