Matej Beňuš

Matej Beňuš (born 2 November 1987 in Bratislava) is a Slovak slalom canoeist who has competed since the early 2000s.
He won a silver medal in the C1 event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He also won seven medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with six golds (C-1 team: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015) and a bronze (C-1: 2011). He is double overall world cup champion in the C-1 category (2010, 2015). At the European Championships he won a total of ten medals (7 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronzes).

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 C-1 category. Next year, he competed in the 2003 European Junior Championships, taking ninth place in the individual discipline 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 2004 European Junior Championships in Krakow in the individual C-1 categoryand two silver medals at the 2004 World Junior Championships, in both individual and team events. Next season was his last in the junior category, at the 2005 European Junior Championships he placed eight in the individual and fourth in the 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.

U23

He first competed in the U23 category in 2004, achieving fifth place at the European Junior Championships (it was the first time these championships included the U23 category, therefore the official name changed to the European Junior and U23 Championships) in C-1 team with Alexander Slafkovský and Ján Bátik. Two years later, he finished fifth in individual and seventh in the team eventand in 2007 he won his first medal in this category, bronze in C-1 in Krakow. He added silver medal at the 2008 European Junior and U23 Championshipsand gold next year in Liptovský Mikuláš, both in individual C-1 discipline. 2010 season was his last one when he was eligible to start in U23 events, he won the silver medal in the individual and bronze in the team C-1 competition at the 2010 European Junior and U23 Championships in Markkleeberg.

Senior

C-1 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. Next season he won his first individual senior medal: silver, at the 2010 European Championships, when the whole podium was taken by Slovak canoeists. He also became the overall World Cup champion in C-1 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. Since 2010, he has always been in top 3 in the final ranking of the World cup, after first and second place in 2010 and 2011 respectively, he was also third in 2012, second in 2013, third again in 2014 and first in 2015. Since 2013, he has always finished in top ten in major events, with one ninth and two sixth places at the World Championships and two bronze medals (2013 and 2015) and one fifth place on European level. In 2015, he achieved the title Slovak Canoeist of the Year again. 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 C-1 were achieved by Michal Martikán)

C-1 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 six gold medals (record is held by the USA with seven gold medals in a row, but members of that team had changed over the years). 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, he was not a part of the team only in 2014, but in all of the other European Championships they finished first.

He is married, his wife's name is Ivana and they have two children, Simon and Tobias. His elder sister Dana Mann is also a gold medalist from the world championships in canoe slalom.