Tony Estanguet

Tony Estanguet becomes canoe slalom world champion in Prague in 2006

Tony Estanguet (born May 6, 1978 in Pau , Département Pyrénées-Atlantiques , France) is a former French canoeist and current sports official . He became Olympic champion and world champion in canoe slalom .

Life

Tony Estanguet comes from a family of whitewater canoes, his older brother Patrice won the bronze medal in the single canoe at the 1996 Olympic Games . In 1997 Tony Estanguet won his first world championship medal with silver in the team competition of the Canadians, followed by bronze in the team competition in 1999. Estanguet experienced the first high point of his career at the 2000 Olympic Games , when he narrowly defeated defending champion Michal Martikán from Slovakia and won his first Olympic gold medal.

In 2003 Martikán became world champion ahead of Estanguet, who also won silver with the team. In 2004 in Athens , Martikán was first recorded as the winner, but after looking at the television pictures, the jury determined that he had touched a pole. Martikán was then relegated to second place and Estanguet was Olympic champion for the second time. He became the only male athlete who could ever successfully defend his Olympic victory in canoe slalom.

In 2005 and 2007 Estanguet won silver in the individual competition and gold with the team at the world championships, in 2006 in Prague Estanguet won his first world title in the individual competition. At the 2008 Olympic Games , Estanguet carried the French flag to the Beijing Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony. In the competition, however, he failed in the semi-finals because he only finished ninth there. In 2012 he won his third gold medal in canoe slalom at the Olympic Games .

Estanguet was French champion seven times and European champion twice. In 2005, 2007 and 2008 he won the World Cup. On November 30, 2012, he announced his resignation.

In 2012, Estanguet, who graduated from the ESSEC Business School with a degree in Sports Marketing in 2005, became a member of the Athletes Committee of the International Olympic Committee . According to the newspaper L'Express , as a member of the bid committee for the 2024 Summer Olympics (from February 2015 he was co-president), he had the largest share in the award of the sporting event to Paris . He then became sole chairman of the organizing committee for the Paris Games.

Web links

Commons : Tony Estanguet  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Tony Estanguet in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Les 20 ans de Tony Estanguet: comment il est devenu champion olympique de canoë. In: letudiant.fr. Retrieved December 12, 2019 (French). 
2. ^ JO 2024: Tony Estanguet, le champion olympique qui a fait gagner Paris. In: lexpress.fr. September 14, 2017, accessed December 12, 2019 (French). 
3. ↑ L'équipe. In: Paris 2024. Retrieved December 12, 2019 (French).