Manuel Busto Fernández - Spanish

Manuel Busto Fernandez - Member of the World Paddle Awards Academy

Manuel Busto Fernández is a Spanish marathon kayakist who won a staggering 10 World Championships over a career spanning more than 10 years (6 golds in K1: 2000-2002, 2004-2005, 2009, and 4 golds in K2 with crew-mate Oier Aizpurúa: 2004-2007). He also took home 4 World Championship silvers (K1: 2006, 2007, 2010 and K2: 2003) and a bronze in Zamora, 2002 in K2 – a total of 15 World Championship medals!

A little bit of trivia: 2 months after winning his first Spanish Championship, Manuel won his first World Championship title in Dartmouth, Canada. Remarkably he won the K1 and K2 World Championship double in the same year on 2 occasions (2004 and 2005).

Manuel has a 'nothing-short-of-incredible' track record at the Europeans too; 5 x K1 golds (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009), 1 x K2 gold (2005) plus 2 x silvers (1 in K1 in 2011, another in K2 in 2007) – note the K1, K2 double again in 2005!

Despite being a reserve athlete for the Atlanta 1996 Games, he dedicated the rest of his career to marathon.

Heralding from Asturias, a region with a rich paddlesports history on long rivers, growing up in a house right next to one and coming from a family of river-runners, he started paddling aged 6. Some say that, due to his upbringing, natural talent on the water and love of training, it was always inevitable that he would be World Champion.

Manuel is known for being determined in everything he does and for doing it properly. A family-man, polite and down-to-earth, Manuel tends to be shy and reserved, but he will always be remembered as the local guy who became a world legend through hard training and sacrifice.

Not just an athlete, Manuel set up his own club as well; 'Piragüismo Astur' and, following his retirement from elite competition, he was a political candidate to become Asturias Deputy in 2011.

Manuel was awarded several honours for his service to Spain and kayak marathon including: 'Predilect Son' of his hometown Villaviciosa, the Royal Order of Sporting Merit (the highest award in Sport in Spain) in 2003 and 'Best Spanish Kayaker of the Year' on 3 separate occasions (2000, 2002 and 2005).

One of the most successful Spanish athletes ever and one of the greatest in the history of marathon kayaking internationally, Manuel 'the legend' is an incredible asset to the World Paddle Awards Academy and to paddlesports as a whole.