Benjamin Savšek (born 24 March 1987) is a Slovenian slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2002, specializing in the C1 discipline. With an Olympic gold, 2 individual world titles and 4 individual European titles, he is one of the most successful C1 paddlers of his generation.
Savšek competed at four Olympic Games. His first appearance was at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he finished in 8th place in the C1 event. He finished in 6th place in the same event four years later at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo he won gold in the C1 event after completing a clean run in the final. He also competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, finishing 11th in the C1 event and 12th in kayak cross.
Savšek won ten medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships including 5 individual medals. He won gold in the C1 event in 2017 in Pau and then again in 2023 in London. He also has two silvers (2014 and 2015) and a bronze (2013). The other five medals came from the C1 team events as part of the Slovenian team. These include a gold in 2022, a silver in 2018 and three bronzes in 2014, 2015 and 2025.
Savšek also won 14 medals at the European Canoe Slalom Championships (8 golds, 2 silver and 4 bronzes). Six of these medals are individual (4 golds and 2 bronzes).
Savšek has also had success in the World Cup where he has collected 5 victories and 19 podiums as of 2023. He is yet to win the overall title, however, finishing in the runner-up position of 4 occasions (2009, 2015, 2017 and 2021). He finished in the top ten of the overall standings every year from 2009 to 2023 (with the exception of the 2020 season when there were no World Cup final rankings due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Savšek was the year-end World No. 1 in C1 event in 2015 and 2022.
Career statistics
Major championships results timeline
Event 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026Olympic Games C1 —Not held8Not held6Not held1Not held 11Not held Kayak crossNot held 12Not held World Championships C1 Not held 197 17 Not held322 Not held17 18 Not held941 Not held9 12 C1 team Not held45 12 Not held433 Not held526 Not held514 Not held34 European Championships C1 18106 133 2761 124 11116163 11 20 C1 team6668531992511310812 11
World Cup individual podiums Total C1 6 6 9 21
SeasonDateVenuePositionEvent 2009 3 August 2009 Kananaskis 2nd C11 2010 19 June 2010 Prague 2nd C1 2012 25 August 2012 Prague 1st C1 2014 14 June 2014 Tacen 1st C1 21 June 2014 Prague 3rd C1 2015 20 June 2015 Prague 2nd C1 27 June 2015 Kraków 3rd C1 8 August 2015 La Seu d'Urgell 3rd C1 2016 3 September 2016 Prague 3rd C1 10 September 2016 Tacen 1st C1 2017 10 September 2017 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 2021 13 June 2021 Prague 3rd C1 20 June 2021 Markkleeberg 3rd C1 12 September 2021 Pau 2nd C1 2022 19 June 2022 Kraków 2nd C1 26 June 2022 Tacen 3rd C1 28 August 2022 Pau 3rd C1 2023 10 June 2023 Prague 1st C1 16 June 2023 Tacen 3rd C1 2024 8 June 2024 Prague 2nd C1 14 September 2024 Ivrea 1st C1
1 Pan American Championship counting for World Cup points
References
External links
Benjamin Savsek at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics (archived, alternate link) Benjamin Savšek at Team Slovenia