Matej Beňuš

Career Junior His parents introduced him to this sport at a young age, and he took it up at age 11. His first major international competition was the 2002 World Junior Championships, where he finished 23rd in the C1 category. The following year he competed at the 2003 European Junior Championships, taking ninth place in the individual C1 and sixth place in the team event, with Ján Bátik and Peter Hajdu. He won his first medals in the 2004 season: gold at the European Junior Championships in Krakow in the individual C1 category and two silver medals at the World Junior Championships, in both individual and team events. The 2005 season was his last in the junior category, finishing 8th in the C1 event at the European Junior Championships and 4th in the C1 team event. In 2004, he was named the Junior of the Year and in 2005 the Talent of the Year by the Slovak Canoe Association. Two years later, he finished fifth in individual and seventh in the team event and in 2007 he won his first medal in this category, bronze in C1 in Krakow. He added a silver medal at the 2008 European U23 Championships and gold a year later in Liptovský Mikuláš, both in individual C1 discipline. 2010 season was the last one he was eligible to start in U23 events. He won a silver medal in the individual and bronze in the team C1 competition at the 2010 European U23 Championships in Markkleeberg.

Senior

C1 Individual His first major international senior competition was the 2007 European Championships, where he finished 15th. He also competed at the 2007 World Championships, finishing 29th. Two years later, he managed to enter the top ten, with the sixth place at the 2009 European and fifth at the 2009 World Championships. In that season, he also achieved his first podium at the World Cup event, finishing third in Bratislava and placed fifth in the final World Cup ranking.

In 2010 he won his first individual senior medal: silver at the European Championships, when the Slovak canoeists swept all the podium positions. He also became the overall World Cup champion in C1 category. In 2011 he won his first and so far the only individual medal at the World Championships: bronze, on his home whitewater course and won his first World Cup race, placing second in the final ranking. He was also named the 2011 Canoeist of the Year by the Slovak Canoe Association.

His biggest individual success is the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where he prolonged Slovak medal streak in this discipline (first five medals in C1 were achieved by Michal Martikán). Beňuš also competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, finishing in 6th place in the C1 event. He won another medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a bronze in the C1 event. He also finished 34th in kayak cross at those games.

C1 Team At the World Senior championships, he has been a part of Slovak team since 2009, together with Martikán and Slafkovský. They have won the gold medal at every World Championship since then, with a total of nine gold medals (surpassing the record previously held by the USA). At the European Senior Championships he first competed in the team event in 2007 with Martikán and Juraj Minčík, immediately winning the gold medal. They repeated this success next year (with Slafkovský instead of Minčík), but finished eighth in 2009. At the 2010 European Championships held in his hometown they won the gold medal again and in 2011 they finished fourth. Over the next five years they won 4 European titles together, with the exception of the 2014 season when Beňuš didn't make the national team selection.

Career statistics

Major championships results timeline

World Cup individual podiums Total C1 5 12 5 22

SeasonDateVenuePositionEvent 2009 5 July 2009 Bratislava 3rd C1 2011 2 July 2011 L'Argentière-la-Bessée 1st C1 2013 22 June 2013 Cardiff 2nd C1 29 June 2013 Augsburg 2nd C1 24 August 2013 Bratislava 3rd C1 2014 7 June 2014 Lee Valley 2nd C1 2 August 2014 La Seu d'Urgell 2nd C1 16 August 2014 Augsburg 3rd C1 2015 27 June 2015 Kraków 1st C1 8 August 2015 La Seu d'Urgell 2nd C1 15 August 2015 Pau 2nd C1 2016 3 September 2016 Prague 1st C1 2017 18 June 2017 Prague 2nd C1 25 June 2017 Augsburg 1st C1 3 September 2017 Ivrea 3rd C1 2019 22 June 2019 Bratislava 2nd C1 7 September 2019 Prague 1st C1 2023 3 June 2023 Augsburg 2nd C1 10 June 2023 Prague 2nd C1 2024 15 June 2024 Kraków 2nd C1 2025 6 September 2025 Augsburg 2nd C1 2026 13 June 2026 Augsburg 3rd C1

Personal life He is married, his wife's name is Ivana and they have three children, Simon, Tobias, His older sister Dana Mann is also a gold medalist from the 2011 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in K1 team category, together with Elena Kaliská and Jana Dukátová. His mother Jana Kubovčáková won a bronze medal in the K1 team event at the 1975 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.

Beňuš is a practicing Roman Catholic who was raised and shaped at Salesian Youth Center in Trnávka neighbourhood of Ružinov, Bratislava.