Maiale chourraut

Maialen Chourraut (2017)

Maialen Chourraut Yurramendi (born March 8, 1983 in San Sebastian ) is a Spanish canoeist . She became Olympic champion in canoe slalom in 2016 after finishing third in the Olympic Games four years earlier.

Athletic career

Maialen Chourraut started canoeing in San Sebastian at the age of 12. Since 2002 she has been at international championships, although she had to pause in 2004 and 2005 due to injuries. At the European Championships in 2008, she reached the final in the individual ranking for the first time and took fifth place. In the same year she also took part in the Olympic Games in Beijing, but was eliminated in qualifying as 16th. In 2009 she finished sixth at the European Championships in Nottingham. The 2009 World Championships were held on Chourraut's home track in La Seu d'Urgell , Chourraut won the silver medal behind the German Jasmin Schornberg . In 2010 Chourraut reached seventh place at the European Championships, at the World Championships she was knocked off in 16th place. The 2011 European Championships took place in La Seu d'Urgell, with Chourraut taking fifth place. At the 2011 World Championships in Bratislava, Corinna Kuhnle from Austria won ahead of local hero Jana Dukátová , followed by Chourraut in third place. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Émilie Fer from France won ahead of Jessica Fox from Australia , followed by Maialen Chourraut who won the bronze medal. It was the first ever Olympic medal in white water for Spain.

Maialen Chourraut is married to her trainer Xabier Etxaniz, their daughter was born in 2013. In 2014 she returned to the water. At the European Championships in Vienna, she finished 18th in the individual ranking, but won silver with the team. The following year she won the European championship in Markkleeberg. At the 2015 World Championships in London, she came in fifth. In 2016 she took sixth place at the European Championships. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, she reached the semifinals as eleventh in qualification. There she took third place behind Corinna Kuhnle and the British Fiona Pennie . In the final she won by over three seconds over Luuka Jones from New Zealand and Jessica Fox from Australia.

Maialen Chourraut holds a degree in business administration from the Catholic University of Murcia .

Web links

• Maiale Chourraut in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait on canoeicf.com (accessed July 2, 2019)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Semi-finals at SportsReference