Tony Estanguet

Tony Estanguet ( born May 6, 1978 in Pau, Pyrénées- Atlantiques département, France ) is a French kayaker. He was Olympic champion and world champion in canoe slalom.

Tony Estanguet comes from a family of whitewater kayakers, his older brother Patrice won the one-man canoe at the 1996 Olympic Games bronze medal. Won the 1997 Tony Estanguet with silver in the team competition of the one - Canadians his first World Championship medal, followed in 1999, bronze in the team competition. The first highlight of his career experienced Estanguet at the Olympic Games in 2000 when he nearly defeated the defending champion Michal Martikán from Slovakia and won his first Olympic gold medal.

2003 Martikán world champion before Estanguet, who also won the team silver. 2004 Athens Martikán was first listed as a winner, but the judges put upon a consideration of television images later determined that he had touched a rod. Then Martikán was downgraded to No. 2 and Estanguet for the second time Olympic champion. He is the only male athlete ever to defend his Olympic title in the canoe slalom successfully.

2005 and 2007 Estanguet won two silver medals at the World Championships in the individual competition and gold with the team in 2006 in Prague Estanguet won his first world title in the individual competition. At the Olympic Games in 2008 Estanguet wore at the opening ceremony the French flag into the Olympic stadium in Beijing. In competition, he failed, however, in the semifinals, as he only finished ninth there. In 2012, he won his third gold medal in canoe slalom at the Olympic Games.

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