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One of the legends of canoe slalom – Italian Daniele Molmenti – decided to say goodbye to the competitive sport. 32-year-old Molmenti is one of the few canoe slalom paddlers in the history who won an individual gold medal at every major canoeing event – Olympic Games, European Championships and World Championships. He is, however, the only one who managed to achieve the titles in mens kayak, the others who also won the Olympic, World and European Champion titles are Štěpánka Hilgertová, Elena Kaliská (both K1W), Michal Martikán, Tony Estanguet (both C1M) and Pavol Hochschorner/Peter Hochschorner (C2M).

Molmenti won his first individual medal in the major canoeing competitions in 2004 at the European Championships in Skopje, where he finished third. In 2008 he enriched his medals collection with silver medal at the European Championships in Krakow. He was unbeatable in Europe in the years 2009, 2011 and 2012 (Nottingham, La Seu d Urgell and Augsburg). In 2010 he won his only World Champion title at the World Championships in Tacen. Besides six individual medals from the European and World Championships he also won three team medals and European Championships and additional five team medals at World Championships. His biggest success came in 2012 when he won Olympic Champion title in London.

"After London I tried to double the successes but the many diseases of high-level sports have made me realize that maybe it was a dream too big. The workloads of the high-level athletes are decidedly unhealthy and if you want to win what I have won, you have to push hard for so long. In the last two seasons I have never been able to show the form from London, so there was no sense anymore," said Molmenti, whose preparation for the 2016 Olympics was limited after the car accident in 2014. He still trained hard and competed on the highest level but had to congratulate his team colleague Giovanni de Gennaro in the Italian Olympic qualifications for the Rio 2016 team.

Daniele Molmenti will not continue with competitive canoe sport in a boat, but he will remain close to the top level canoeing. He was nominated – together with former Brazilian head coach Ettore Ivaldi – to the position of the technical director of the Italian national team.

MEDAL RECORD:
Gold medal – 2012 Olympic Games – London – K1M
Gold medal – 2009 European Championships – Nottingham – K1M
Gold medal – 2010 World Championships – Tacen – K1M
Gold medal – 2011 European Championships – La Seu d Urgell – K1M
Gold medal – 2012 European Championships – Augsburg – K1M
Gold medal – 2013 World Championships – Prague – K1M team
Silver medal – 2008 European Championships – Krakow – K1M
Silver medal – 2005 World Championships – Penrith – K1M team
Silver medal – 2006 World Championships – Prague – K1M team
Silver medal – 2008 European Championships – Krakow – K1M team
Bronze medal – 2004 European Championships – Skopje – K1M
Bronze medal – 2005 European Championships – Tacen – K1M team
Bronze medal – 2010 World Championships – Tacen – K1M team
Bronze medal – 2011 World Championships – Bratislava – K1M team
Bronze medal – 2015 European Championships – Markkleeberg – K1M team

Source: http://messaggeroveneto.gelocal.it/sport/2017/01/26/news/si-ritira-un-grande-daniele-molmenti-1.14774726