Tony Estanguet

Tony Estanguet

Tony Estanguet riding for the gold medal at the 2006 World Championships at Troja slalom course in Prague.

Medal record Men's canoe slalom Representing France Olympic Games 2000 Sydney C-1 2004 Athens C-1 2012 London C-1 World Championships 2005 Penrith C-1 team 2006 Prague C-1 2007 Foz do Igauçu C-1 team 2009 La Seu d'Urgell C-1 2010 Tacen C-1 1997 Três Coroas C-1 team 2003 Augsburg C-1 2003 Augsburg C-1 team 2005 Penrith C-1 2007 Foz do Igauçu C-1 2009 La Seu d'Urgell C-1 team 1999 La Seu d'Urgell C-1 team European Championships 2000 Mezzana C-1 2006 L'Argentière-la-Bessée C-1 2011 La Seu d'Urgell C-1 2011 La Seu d'Urgell C-1 team 2002 Bratislava C-1 2009 Nottingham C-1 team 2012 Augsburg C-1 2007 Liptovský Mikuláš C-1 team 2010 Bratislava C-1 team 2012 Augsburg C-1 team

Tony Estanguet (born 6 May 1978 in Pau, France) is a French slalom canoeist. He has competed since the mid-1990s.

Career

Tony is the son of Henri Estanguet, himself a canoeist who won medals at the Wildwater Canoe World Championships in the 1970s. His elder brother, Patrice Estanguet, won a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

He graduated from top French business school ESSEC, specializing in sports marketing.

Estanguet has won three Olympic gold medals in the C-1 event, in 2000, 2004 and 2012. In 2004, he won after the referees very controversially decided to award Michal Martikán a two second penalty which pushed him to second place, only 12 hundredths of a second behind Estanguet.

Estanguet was the flag-bearer for France at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics opening ceremony. He finished in the 9th position (out of 12 competitors; only the first eight would qualify for the final) in the semi-finals of the C-1 event and was thus eliminated from the final.

At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, he became the first French Olympian to win three gold medals in the same Olympic discipline.

He won twelve medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with five golds (C-1: 2006, 2009, 2010; C-1 team: 2005, 2007), six silvers (C-1: 2003, 2005, 2007; C-1 team: 1997, 2003, 2009), and a bronze (C-1 team: 1999).

Estanguet won the overall World Cup title in C-1 in 2003 and 2004. He also won a total of ten medals at the European Championships (4 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes).

He and his brother Patrice developed the Pau-Pyrénées Whitewater Stadium in their home town of Pau.

In 2012 he was elected to the IOC Athletes' Commission. He will serve as an IOC member for eight years.

On November 30 of 2012, he announced that he retired.

References

• 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships 12 September 2010 C-1 men's final results. – Retrieved 12 September 2010.
• 12 September 2009 final results of the men's C-1 team slalom event for the 2009 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. – Retrieved 12 September 2009.
• 13 September 2009 final results of the men's C-1 event at the 2009 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. – Retrieved 13 September 2009.
• DatabaseOlympics.com profile
• ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936–2007.
• Sports-reference.com profile

Olympic Games
Preceded by Jackson Richardson	Flagbearer for France Beijing 2008	Succeeded by Laura Flessel