Modern sports in what is now the Slovak territory, formerly a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire first took place in the late nineteenth century. Because of the difficult economic and social living conditions of the day, other social issues took precedence over sporting activities at the time. It was an everyday struggle for the population to get by on a day-to-day basis. However, in spite of these hardships, the gradual development of sports clubs progressed at a healthy pace in what we know as modern day Slovakia.

 

The first documented sport to have taken place was horseracing. The first modern style horse race in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was held in Bratislava‘s district of Petržalka in 1826. By 1839, a mere 13 years later, a horse racing association had been fully established and was responsible for organising a multitude of events.

 

Further sporting developments were witnessed in the very same period in other areas of sport, such as the first Gymnastics and Fencing School in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, established in 1844 by F. Martinengo in Bratislava. Physical education was introduced in schools by I. B. Zoch, a physical education teacher at the Secondary Grammar School in Revúca. He authored the very first Slovak textbook on physical education, published in 1873.

 

The Bratislava Rowing Club became the first modern sports club, founded in 1862.Within one year of its existence, the club had organised the first ever river race with the historical Devin as its starting point.

 

A wide range of sports have deep set traditions and roots in Slovakia, such as athletics, fencing, skating, tennis, rowing, cycling, bowling, boxing, swimming, weight lifting and wrestling. Football only really began to appear on the widespread scale that we know today as late as the early twentieth century.

 

The oldest recorded athletics event known of in Slovakia was a hurdles competition that was held in Prešov in 1846. In 1864 another hurdles race was organised on a horse racing course in Petržalka.

 

Winter sports, especially skiing, developed at a reasonable pace in the region of the High Tatras. In 1900 the European speed skating Championships took place in Štrbské Pleso. In 1903 the first luge track was built in Tatranská Lomnica. The first ski event was held in 1911 in Tatranská Polianka.

From the very beginning, sports in Slovakia were enjoyed more or less exclusively by the wealthy population. For this reason, many athletes left for more prosperous clubs in Budapest. Most of them also represented Hungary at the Olympics until 1918. Among the medal winners at the Olympic Games in 1896 was A. Szokol from Hronec near Brezno, who finished third with a bronze medal in the one hundred meters sprint.

 

Swimmer, Z. Halmaj, a native of Vysoká pri Morave was the most successful Olympic medalist during that period, winning an astonishing two gold medals, four silver medals and one bronze medal at the Olympics in 1900, 1904 and 1908. All medals were won representing Hungary.

 

During the period of the Czechoslovak republic, 1918 -1938, the Czechoslovak, Hungarian, German, Polish and Jewish organisations all developed their sports activities in Slovakia. The Czechoslovak Sports Community (Československá obec športová) served as a central coordinating organisation for competitions. In 1928 this association was transformed into The Czechoslovak All Sports Committee (Československý všešportový výbor), as was the case in the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee.

 

Eighteen Slovaks participated in the Olympics during the period between the two world wars. In 1936, the first medals were won by J. Herda, a wrestler who won a silver medal, as did M. Pálfyová, a gymnast.

 

Football has since become the most popular sport in Slovakia. The most successful Slovak team was I. ČsŠK Bratislava, established in 1919. In 1927, it was winning the title of Czechoslovak Amateur Champion.

 

Ice hockey bandy clubs first appeared in Slovakia after WWI most notably in Košice and Bratislava. The European Championship in The High Tatras was a milestone in Canadian hockey playing in Slovakia. In 1929 The Slovak Association of Canadian Hockey was set up. The sport quickly became established and accepted in Bratislava, The High Tatras, Žilina, Nitra, Trnava, Banská Bystrica and Prešov. In the 1929/30 season, the first Tatra Cup (Tatranský pohár) took place in The High Tatras, and became the second oldest ice hockey club tournament in Europe. The Bratislava Ski Club became the first Slovak champion.

 

By late 1938, new Slovak sports associations had been established, and in 1939 The Slovak Central Sports Council (Slovenská ústredná športová rada) was constituted as the central sports authority of the Slovak State. Its leadership continued until 1944. When the Slovak Olympic Committee was established, G. Rehák became its first president.

 

By the end of WW2, Slovak athletes were successfully representing their country under Czechoslovakia‘s flag. The most striking achievements were presented by our gold medalists: J. Torma - boxing, 1948, J. Zachara - boxing, 1952, O. Nepela - figure skating, 1972, A. Tkáč - cycling, 1976, S. Seman and F. Kunzo - football, 1980, J. Pribilinec - walk, 1988, M. Mečíř - tennis, 1988.

 

Football has been the most popular sport throughout modern sporting history in Slovakia. Slovan Bratislava, one of the all time greatest football clubs, won the Czechoslovak League eight times. The club achieved an amazing level of success in 1969 by becoming the only Slovak football team to win the Cup-winners Cup.

 

In the 1962 World Championships in Chile the Czechoslovak football team won the silver medal. The greatest contributions on that team came from V. Schrojf, J. Popluhár, R. Scherer, J. Adamec, J. Štibrányi, A. Kvašňák, T. Buberník, P. Molnár. The European football champion in Belgrade in 1976 was also Czechoslovakia where the following notable Slovak players took part. A. Vencel, K. Dobiáš, K. Gögh, J. Čapkovič, L. Jurkemik, J. Móder, M. Masný, J. Pollák, A. Ondruš, J. Pivarník, J. Švehlík, D. Galis, alongside coach J. Vengloš.

 

The year 1981 was very significant in the area of Olympic diplomacy because Vladimír Černušák was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was the first Slovak member ever, serving until 2001, and ever since, he has been an honorary member of the IOC. On December 9, 1992, just a few days before the independent Slovak Republic came into being; The Slovak Olympic Committee (SOC) was established in Bratislava, with IOC member Vladimír Černušák, becoming its president. The IOC accepted the SOC as a member on September 24, 1993 during its General assembly in Monaco.

 

The debut performance of Slovak athletes under their very own national flag was at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Slovak ice hockey players won sixth place and scored that first historic Olympic point for Slovakia in the countries ranking. The second Olympic point was taken by M. Jašicová in the biathlon event.

 

During the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta, the first medals of the games were won by Slovakia. Golden success was achieved in the Canadian single slalom by M. Martikán. S. Kňazovický won the silver medal in 500 m canoeing, and the bronze medal went to J. Gönci in the free rifle 60 shots.

 

Ice hockey is now extremely popular in Slovakia. In 1994, Slovakia won the qualifying tournament at the Winter Olympics. In the following two seasons the Slovak ice hockey team won the C pool of the World Championship, held in Poprad and Spišská Nová Ves, and later the B pool of the World Championship in Bratislava. The team won a silver medal in 2000 in St. Petersburg. The Slovak National Team became the World Champion in 2002 in Göteborg. Every citizen shared the pride of Slovakia, as the entire country celebrated the greatest ever victory in ice hockey won by J. Bača, Ľ. Bartečko, P. Bondra, L. Čierny, M. Handzuš, R. Hecl, M. Hlinka, J. Lašák, R. Lintner, D. Milo, L. Nagy, V. Országh, Ž. Pálffy, R. Pavlíkovský, R. Petrovický, P. Pucher, M. Šimonovič, P. Smrek, R. Somík, R. Staňa, M. Štrbák, J. Stümpel, R. Tomík, M. Uram, Ľ. Višňovský with coaches J. Filc, E. Bokroš, V. Šťastný.

 

In 2002 „The Slovak Athlete of the Century“ took place, with the main honor being bestowed on Ondrej Nepela - three-times world champion and five times European champion in figure skating. Anton Tkáč - three-time World champion in sprint cycling, was named as runner-up. Third place was awarded to Vladimír Dzurila, an ice hockey goalkeeper who had won one silver and two bronze medals at the winter Olympics.

 

Slovak sport reached big success during the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 Slovak athletes gained there six medals, two of them were gold – one won by canoeists, brothers, Hochschorners and the other one won by kayaker Elena Kaliská.

The year 2005 was in the name of football qualification to WCH 2006. Slovak team finally got into barage, where it lost with Spain. The event of the year was the progress of the Slovak tennis players to the finals of Davis Cup, where they after equal fight lost with Croatia 2:3 in Bratislava. The leader of team was Dominik Hrbatý, who also became the athlete number one of the Slovak Republic of the year 2005.

 

Slovakia seriously considered submitting a bid to host the winter Olympics in 1984 in the High Tatras. Poprad - located in the Tatra Mountains officially submitted two bids to host the Winter Games in 2002 and 2006. Due to the strength of the competition, the bids unfortunately were not successful.

In the relatively short history of independent Slovak Republic the most successful sport is definitely canoeing, particularly wild water slalom in which the Slovak representatives belong to the World’s top for a quite long period. Marvelous brothers Peter and Pavol Hochschorner, who won three times at Olympic Games, especially in Sydney, Athens and Beijing, have achieved extraordinary results in canoeing.

Next brilliant sportsman is Michal Martikán, a national representative in water slalom, who was in the year 2008 announced as the most successful athlete in Slovakia. He has in his collection two golden and two silver Olympic medals and plenty of awards from other top-level competitions. Excellent golden trio is completed by Elena Kaliská who confirmed a golden medal in K-1 discipline in Beijing. High quality of sporting performance is permanently also given by K-4 team consisting of Richard and Michal Riszdorfer, Erik Vlček and Juraj Tarr. After gaining a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Athens they won silver medals at the Olympics in Beijing.

Slovakia has other marvelous athletes, as for example 33-year-old Martina Moravcová who awarded prize for the most successful sportswoman of Slovakia six times. She started up competitions at Olympics five times and met the Slovak record in number of starting-ups of Mária Jasenčáková a national representative in sledging. In Olympic swimming pool Martina Moravcová won two silver medals and she holds three World and European records in swimming. On her account she has unbelievable 203 Slovak records.

From a long-term point of view shooting also belongs to powerful sports in Slovakia. Despite his not very successful result in Beijing Jozef Gönci is still the most outstanding shooter. He won bronze medal two times and in the years 1998 and 1999 he was announced as absolute best shooter of the world.

Other sports which were successfully represented by Slovak athletes at Olympic Summer Games and Olympic Winter Games are as follows: wrestling, judo, snowboarding, biathlon and from team sports disciplines, above all, ice-hockey and women’s basketball.

From its establishment in 1993 Slovakia has obtained at Olympic Games twenty medals in total but at Winter Olympic Games the only one, a silver medal in snowboarding won by Radoslav Židek.

From non-olympic sports the most successful on a long-term basis are: body-building, karate, hockey-ball and mountaineering.

In previous period also disabled athletes achieved a lot of success. At Paralympic Games 2008 in Beijing they won seven medals, which enlarged their collection of precious metals - 12 golden, 28 silver and 28 bronze medals.