Road to the Olympics: physical fitness of medalists of the Canoe Sprint Junior European and World Championship events over the past 20 years.

Background: In this article we aimed to find out whether there is a difference in physiological, anthropometric and power variables between medalists in junior international Championship events (MJCH) and the remaining members of the national team (NT) in flat water canoe sprint.

Methods: Sixty male junior kayakers from Slovak NT were tested annually between years 1995 and 2016. Sixteen of them won at least one medal (gold, silver or bronze) at junior international Championship.