Ladislav Škantár

Ladislav Škantár (born 11 February 1983) is a retired Slovak slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1998 to 2018, specializing in the C2 discipline, where he teamed up with his cousin Peter Škantár.

Ladislav and Peter won an Olympic gold medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro in the C2 event. They also won ten medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold (C2 team: 2009), five silvers (C2: 2009, 2017; C2 team: 2011, 2013, 2014) and four bronzes (C2: 2011, 2013, 2014; C2 team: 2007). At the European Championships they won a total of 13 medals (7 golds, 1 silver and 5 bronzes).

The Škantárs won the overall World Cup title in the C2 category in 2009, 2010 and 2014.

Career
The Škantár cousins made their international debut at the 1998 World Junior Canoe Slalom Championships, where they finished in 10th position in the individual C2 event. They made their debut at the senior World Championships one year later in La Seu d'Urgell, finishing in 26th position. Ladislav was 16 years old at the time.

They won their first medal, silver, at the 2000 World Junior Canoe Slalom Championships in Bratislava. They won 3 European under-23 titles in 2002, 2004 and 2005.

Their first success in the senior ranks came in 2003, when they took bronze in a World Cup race in Penrith. They collected more bronze medals in the two following years, including at the 2004 and 2005 European Championships and three bronze medals in the 2005 World Cup season. They also finished 3rd in the overall World Cup standings that year. The following year was a disappointing one as they failed to make the national team and thus were unable to compete at international events.

They came back stronger in 2007 by winning their first individual European gold. However, they were still unable to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics after losing to then two-time defending champions Pavol and Peter Hochschorner.

2009 brought their first World Cup victory in Pau and their first overall World Cup title. They also won their first individual World Championship medal in La Seu d'Urgell that year, finishing runners-up to the Hochschorner twins, missing the gold by just 0.14 seconds. They defended their World Cup title in 2010, winning two races and they also captured their second individual European title.

Winning bronze at both European and World Championships in 2011 would once again not be enough to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Yet again they were bested in the internal qualification by the Hochschorner twins, who won the world title in 2011 and already had 3 Olympic golds to their name.

They won yet another bronze at two 2013 World Championships in Prague.

The Škantár cousins were in dominant form in 2014. They started the year by winning their third individual European title. They also won 3 out 5 World Cup races and the overall title for the third and final time in their careers. They finished the year with a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships at Deep Creek Lake.

2015 was a disappointing season by their standards, without any major achievements outside a team gold at the European Championships. Ironically, they had done enough to qualify for their first Olympic Games.

Coming into the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Škantár cousins have not shown great form. They finished 6th at the European championships and 5th in their only World Cup start prior to the games. Their first qualifying run at the games was enough win the preliminary round and advance to the 11-boat semifinal. They had two gate touches in the semifinal and only finished 6th, but did enough to advance to the final. Their final run was more than 6 seconds faster than the winning time from the semifinal and even though there were still 5 boats to come after they finished their run, they were able to hold on to the top position and win the gold. Since the C2 event was subsequently discontinued, they will likely remain as the last Olympic champions in the C2 discipline.

They carried their Olympic form to the rest of the 2016 season, winning the last 2 rounds of the World Cup. They took one last World Cup win in 2017 and missed out on winning the world title by 0.07 seconds, finishing second to Gauthier Klauss and Matthieu Péché. It was the closest they would ever come to winning an individual world title.

Both cousins retired from canoe slalom in 2018 after the C2 event was discontinued and subsequently switched to wildwater canoeing. They announced retirement from wildwater canoeing during the 2021 World Championships in their hometown Bratislava where they didn't start due to Ladislav's injury.

World Cup individual podiums

 * 1 European Championship counting for World Cup points
 * 2 Oceania Canoe Slalom Open counting for World Cup points