Canadian Singles, Slalom, Men

Lukáš Pollert, now representing the Czech Republic, was the defending Olympic champion in the C-1 slalom and travelled to the 1996 Summer Olympics to defend his crown. To do so, he would have to fend off challenges from Great Britain’s Gareth Marriott, the most recent Olympic runner-up, Slovenia’s Simon Hočevar, the reigning European champion, and Martin Lang of Germany and Davey Hearn of the United States, the 1993 and 1995 World Champions respectively. Pollert was leading after the first round, with France’s Patrice Estanguet in second, Marriot in third, Lang in fifth, Hearn in tenth, and Hočevar in 26th after a disastrous, penalty-laden run. Of these men, only Hearn and Hočevar were able to improve their performances in the second run, but neither by enough to come within striking distance of the podium. Slovakia’s Michal Martikán, meanwhile, who had been in sixth after the first round, had an excellent second run and captured the gold medal with 0.14 more points than Pollert, who was forced to settle for silver. Estanguet was bumped down to bronze, while Marriott was knocked off the podium entirely.