The Olympic winner of the 50-kilometre event at Rio Summer Olympics racewalker Matej Tóth became the king of Slovak sport for 2016 according to journalist. Since Tóth was one of several athletes who had their career best season, 2016 was the best year for Slovakia since separating from the Czech Republic in 1993. The second road Cyclist Peter Sagan won the green jersey for the best sprinter at Tour de France for the fifth consecutive time. He also won the award for the most competitive rider, collected 3 stage wins and, as the first Slovak in history, wore a yellow jersey as overall leader at the beginning of the Tour. Moreover, he also defended the title of the world champion, Slovak champion and also became the European Champion.
The third Dominika Cibulková finished her season at career high fifth position in the WTA ranking. She became the first Slovak to win the singles the 2016 WTA Finals tournament in Singapore, where the top eight players of the world competed. Fourth cousins Ladislav and Peter Škantár became the Olympic champions in the C2 white-water slalom discipline. Fifth canoeist Matej Beňuš won silver in C1 discipline in Rio. Sixth skier Veronika Velez Zuzulová finished second overal in Slalom in 2015-16 season. The seventh football player Marek Hamšík lead the National team at first European Championship for Slovakia. The Eight biker Štefan Svitko finished second at 2016 Dakar Rally. The ninth ice hockey forward Marián Hossa has reached significant milestones in NHL last year and the tenth skier Petra Vlhová ended sixth in slalom in her breakout season.
Moreover, the team category was dominated by the quartet of silver-winning sprint canoers in the K4 discipline at Rio. Veronika Vadovičová became the Paralympian of the year after taking two golds and one silver.
