Michal Smolen (born Michał Smoleń, September 13, 1993)[1] is a Polish-American slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2008 for the United States.

Michal Smolen

Medal record
Men's canoe slalom
Representing  United States
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2015 London K1
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2015 Toronto K1
U23 World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 Penrith K1

He won a bronze medal in the K1 event at the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in London.[2]

Smolen participated at two Olympic Games. He finished 12th in the K1 event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[3] He qualified to represent the United States again at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo,[4] where he finished 5th in the K1 event.

Smolen's first major victory came at the 2014 Under 23 World Championship in Penrith where he won gold in the K1 event.

His father Rafał represented Poland in canoe slalom and his mother Agnieszka was a Polish national team handball player.[5]

World Cup individual podiums

edit
Season Date Venue Position Event
2014 21 June 2014 Prague 3rd K1
2017 2 September 2017 Ivrea 2nd K1
2018 1 July 2018 Kraków 3rd Kayak cross

References

edit
  1. ^ "Profile at Team USA". Archived from the original on August 18, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
  2. ^ "Michal SMOLEN (USA)". CanoeSlalom.net. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  3. ^ "Michal Smolen". Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  4. ^ OlympicTalk (2021-06-17). "U.S. Olympic team roster: Athletes qualified for Tokyo Games". OlympicTalk | NBC Sports. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  5. ^ "Michal Smolen (USA)". CanoeICF.com. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
edit