Jiří Prskavec (canoeist, born 1993)

Jiří Prskavec (born 18 May 1993) is a Czech slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2008, specializing in the K1 discipline. In 2023 he also started competing in C1. He also occasionally appears in kayak cross. With an Olympic gold and a bronze, 2 individual world titles and 5 individual European titles, he is one of the most successful K1 paddlers of his generation.

Career
Prskavec competed at two Olympic games. In his first appearance he won a bronze medal in the K1 event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after touching one gate in the final. He then won gold in the K1 event at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He has qualified for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris where he will be defending his title.

Prskavec won 11 medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships including five individual medals. He won gold in the K1 event in 2015 in London and then again in 2019 in La Seu d'Urgell. He also three silvers (2013, 2018 and 2023). The other six came from the K1 team events as part of the Czech team. These include three golds (2015, 2017, 2023), two silvers (2014, 2019) and a bronze (2018)

Prskavec also won 19 medals (14 golds, 2 silver and 3 bronzes) at the European Championships. Nine of these medals are individual (6 golds and 3 bronzes), including a gold medal in the K1 event at the 2023 European Games in Kraków.

Prskavec won the overall World Cup title in the K1 class a total of three times (2018, 2019 and 2022). He finished the 2016, 2019-2021 and 2023 seasons as the World No. 1.

Prskavec started competing in the C1 discipline in 2023 and had immediate success. Just qualifying for the strong Czech national team was already considered an achievement. He then shocked the canoeing world by winning bronze in his first ever international C1 appearance at a World Cup in Augsburg.

Prskavec competed at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics where he won bronze in the K1 slalom event.

Personal life
His father Jiří is a former slalom canoeist and a medalist from World and European Championships.