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12.8.2026
The Czech paddler competed in six medal events and finished on the podium in every single one of them.
Her final tally was remarkable: six medals, four of them gold, including individual European titles in K1, C1 and Kayak Cross.
But who is Valentýna Kočířová, and how has she reached this level at such a young age?
Born on 4 September 2008, Kočířová is still only 17 and represents SKUP Olomouc in Czechia, competing across C1, K1 and Kayak Cross.
She also comes into the sport without a canoeing tradition in her family.
Kočířová confirmed directly that none of her family has a background in canoeing, meaning her journey into the sport has been very much her own.
At club level she works with Michaela Kratochvílová and Jiří Kratochvíl, while her national-team coach is Štěpán Tichý.
From that foundation has come a rapid progression through Czech and international competition — one that reached a new level in 2026.
Kočířová started her European Championships as part of the Czech Junior Women’s K1 Team that won gold, together with Barbora Ondrackova and Lucie Vaculova.
She then added silver in the C1 Team event.
The individual races were where her Championships became exceptional.
In K1, Kočířová became Junior European champion, finishing ahead of Germany’s Nova Mueller and Czech teammate Barbora Ondrackova.
One day later, she repeated the achievement in C1.
Kočířová won the Junior Women’s C1 final in 97.39 seconds, ahead of Nova Mueller and France’s Margot Lapeze, giving her a second individual European title in two different boats.
Then came Kayak Cross.
In the Time Trial, Kočířová finished second behind Lucie Vaculova as Czechia completed a full sweep of the Junior Women’s podium.
Later that afternoon, Kočířová went one better and won the Junior Women’s Kayak Cross European title, ahead of Vaculova and Switzerland’s Carla Rhein.
Her complete Épinal medal collection was:
???? Junior Women K1 Team
???? Junior Women C1 Team
???? Junior Women K1
???? Junior Women C1
???? Junior Women Kayak Cross Time Trial
???? Junior Women Kayak Cross
Six medal events. Six podiums. Four European titles.
More significantly, three of those gold medals came individually in three very different disciplines.
Kočířová’s performance in Épinal becomes even more impressive when compared with what she achieved only weeks earlier at the 2026 ICF Junior & U23 World Championships in Krakow.
In Poland, Czechia dominated the Junior Women’s categories, and Kočířová was at the centre of that success.
She finished second in Junior Women’s K1, behind Barbora Ondrackova, as Czechia swept the podium with Lucie Vaculova third.
She was also second in C1, again behind Ondrackova, and finished second in Kayak Cross, this time behind Marketa Stepankova.
Kočířová additionally helped Czechia win the Junior Women’s K1 and C1 Team World titles.
The pattern between Krakow and Épinal is striking.
K1: World silver → European gold.
C1: World silver → European gold.
Kayak Cross: World silver → European gold.
In the space of just a few weeks, Kočířová went from finishing second in three individual World Championship disciplines to becoming European champion in all three.
It is perhaps the clearest illustration of how quickly she has developed during the 2026 season.
Kočířová’s international breakthrough did not begin in 2026.
She was already appearing at Junior World and European Championship level in 2023, initially establishing herself particularly strongly in C1.
That year she was part of Czech teams winning international titles and was already reaching the leading positions individually.
In 2024, she took another major step by becoming Junior European champion in C1, while also winning team gold. At World Championship level, she added an individual C1 bronze and another team title.
The following season brought more team success, before 2026 transformed her from an athlete regularly fighting for international medals into one capable of challenging for victory across several disciplines.
That progression did not happen only at major championships.
It was also being built week after week at home in one of Europe’s strongest domestic canoe slalom environments.
Kočířová has grown up racing regularly in both K1 and C1 on the Czech circuit, often competing well beyond her own age category.
Already in 2023, while still very young, she was seventh in C1 at the Czech Senior Championships in Lipno. Two years later, in August 2025, she returned to Lipno and climbed onto the senior national podium, finishing third in Women’s C1.
That result was an important indication of how quickly she was closing the gap to Czechia’s senior paddlers.
Her 2026 domestic season provided further evidence.
At the opening rounds of the Czech Cup in Prague-Troja in May, Kočířová was already mixing with senior athletes, including a fourth place in C1 on 10 May and another fourth place one week later.
Then came a major victory in Roudnice nad Labem.
On 30 May, Kočířová won the Women’s K1 race outright in the first National Qualification Race, while also finishing ninth in C1. The following day she was second in C1 and eighth in K1.
Three weeks later, in Veltrusy, she switched the emphasis to canoe and won the Women’s C1 National Qualification Race on 20 June, while also finishing fourth in K1. The next day she followed that with second place in C1.
And shortly before travelling to Épinal, she delivered one of her most dominant weekends of the domestic season.
At the ECA Cup in Roudnice on 25 and 26 July, Kočířová won the JUNIOR K1 and JUNIOR C1 on both competition days.
Four races.
Four victories.
Two in kayak and two in canoe.
That sequence helps explain what followed in France.
Her versatility in Épinal was not something created for one championship. Competing and winning in both K1 and C1 was already part of her normal racing season at home.
Kayak Cross then added a third dimension.
Winning internationally in K1 and C1 alone requires an unusual technical range.
Kayak Cross adds something completely different.
Traditional slalom is an individual race against the clock. Kayak Cross places athletes directly against one another, introducing starts, positioning, tactical decisions, physical contact and the need to react instantly to what is happening around them.
Kočířová has now demonstrated that she can win at European level in all three environments.
That is what makes her Épinal performance more significant than simply counting medals.
She did not collect six medals in variations of the same race.
She succeeded in kayak.
She succeeded in canoe.
She succeeded against the clock.
And she succeeded in direct head-to-head competition.
There is also a less obvious part of Kočířová’s story.
She did not grow up in a canoeing family.
There was no parent or relative already involved in the sport providing an obvious pathway for her to follow.
Instead, she developed through her club environment at SKUP Olomouc, where she is coached by Michaela Kratochvílová and Jiří Kratochvíl, before progressing into the Czech national programme under Štěpán Tichý.
Her story is therefore not one of continuing an established family tradition.
She is creating her own.
And she is doing so within an exceptionally competitive Czech system.
Czechia demonstrated the strength of that system at the 2026 Junior & U23 World Championships in Krakow, where the nation topped the medal table with 11 gold medals and produced clean sweeps in several Junior Women’s events.
The same generation was again highly successful in Épinal, where Czechia finished with 18 medals, the highest total of any nation.
Kočířová was at the heart of both campaigns.
Perhaps the most striking number attached to Kočířová is therefore not six.
It is 17.
She will only turn 18 on 4 September 2026.
Yet she already has several seasons of Junior World and European Championship experience behind her, has competed successfully against senior athletes in Czechia and has now won European titles in three different individual disciplines.
Her trajectory over the last few seasons has been clear.
First came international experience.
Then team titles.
Then an individual European C1 title.
Then World Championship podiums.
And in 2026, the breakthrough became complete.
Three individual silver medals at the World Championships in Krakow were followed weeks later by three individual European titles in Épinal.
Her six-medal performance in France also came inside an exceptionally strong Czech Junior Women’s generation featuring athletes such as Barbora Ondrackova, Lucie Vaculova and Marketa Stepankova. At the World Championships in Krakow, Czechia even produced clean sweeps of the Junior Women’s K1 and Kayak Cross podiums.
But in Épinal, one athlete stood above the rest in terms of total success.
Six medals. Four golds. European champion in K1, C1 and Kayak Cross.
All at only 17 years old.
For Valentýna Kočířová, Épinal 2026 was more than a successful European Championships.
It was the clearest indication yet that one of Czechia’s most promising young paddlers is ready for the next stage of her career.
© 2021 ECA
