Blog Posts: @gregiej
All eyes on Deodoro
Good morning and welcome to the hot and sunny Deodoro Whitewater Stadium. Today starts 5 days of the most spectacular, exhilarating, tense and thrilling canoe slalom competition. C1M heats now start today at 13.30pm (GMT/UTC - 03:00 hour)
Good luck to all of the paddlers and teams. Congratulations to the huge team behind the scenes for what they have achieved in bringing this amazing competition in Brazil to fruition.
For a preview of today’s C1M & K1M heats see yesterday’s post.
Will...Read more
Canoe Slalom Olympic Heats Day 1 Review and Day 2 Preview
The first day of thrilling canoe slalom competition got underway at the Deodoro Whitewater Stadium. First, a review of the C1M and K1M heats followed by a preview of what to expect on Monday for the second day of canoe slalom heats.
C1M – Qualification to semi-final largely follows World ranking
In the C1M heats 14 of the 19 started were set to qualify for Tuesday’s semi-final
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Rio Olympic canoe slalom day 1 preview
The canoe slalom paddlers are back in Deodoro after the beautifully choreographed opening ceremony. Here is a preview of what to expect tomorrow for the first day of canoe slalom starting at the fabulous world class Deodoro whitewater centre.
Athletes have spent much time familiarizing themselves with this stunning venue since the Olympic test event last November. It is now ready to host canoe slalom at the Olympics for the 8th time. We are guaranteed new Olympic Champions in each class.
“Once again just getting to the Games is a story in itself in many...Read more
Canoe Slalom from behind the lens
Canoe slalom has an incredible appeal through the lens of a camera as well as making stunning TV coverage. There is a personal story behind every picture. We have explained the stories in the captions in this post.
I admire the photographs over the years of a small group of slalom enthusiasts; Tony Tickle, Antony Edmonds, Ettore Ivaldi, Chris Worrall, Pete Astles and ICF photographer Balint Vekassy. I was in awe of the stunning images taken by Tony Tickle in the morning mist of the Savage River at the ’89 World Championships.
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Canoe slalom support from the bank - the coach
Today’s posts look both at the important role of the coach and behind the scenes of how the event is judged.
The coach plays a pivotal role in supporting the athlete towards that Ultimate Run. This is not a short-term partnership as the coach and athlete will have spent years working together to hone their performance.
The coach is one member of the athletes' support team that extends to sports psychologists, physiotherapists, dieticians, personal trainers and managers.
Each of the major nation’s competing at Deodoro starting on...Read more
The all seeing eye of the judge
Today we continue the theme of looking at the different roles of those that make Olympic canoe slalom a success. Here we focus on the role of the Judge and explain in more depth the rules of canoe slalom.
To win a medal the paddler needs to be fast and likely clean, meaning no penalties. As the run times have continued to get shorter the possibility to win or medal with a 2-second penalty is unusual. The Canadian Men's Doubles, C2M, presents a unique challenge for the Judges. Both paddlers must negotiate the gate without either paddler touching the poles. It is...Read more
The mental game
We can assume the paddlers at the Olympics are all at the peak of their fitness. We can assume they have all mastered advanced whitewater skills and technique such that there is little to choose between them. So what will make the Olympic champions?
We interviewed Jonathan Males Ph.D. Males is a sports psychologist who has worked with athletes and coaches across the last seven Olympic games. He is the author of In the Flow, a book on performance psychology for paddle sports....Read more
Feel The Ultimate Run
Rici Funk (GER:K1W) helps us understand what it would feel to race on the Rio course.
Yesterday, we highlighted U23 paddlers on the rise. 24-year-old Funk world ranking has risen from 31 in 2012 to number 4. This makes it all the more disappointing to know that she is not racing at the Rio Olympics. Funk won the semi-final at the November Deodoro test event in 106.69 seconds clear and she currently leads the 2016 World Cup series. I predict we will see Funk at her best at next year’s ICF World Championships as we start the next Olympic cycle.
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Junior and U23 paddlers on the rise
Today’s post looks at the recent ICF Junior & U23 World Championships as well as previous results to see what this can tell us about future Olympics medallists.
I wrote the following Most Promising Paddler Award post on August 2, 2012.
“I suggested that it was not a question on whether Australia’s young 18-year-old Junior World Champion would win a medal, only at which Olympics and what colour. For her to win a silver medal this afternoon at Lee Valley during London2012 is truly mind blowing. She won the Junior World Championship only last month in...Read more
Canoe slalom technique and terminology
Today’s attention shifts to describing features of the slalom course and the techniques used to negotiate it. You can refer to the last two posts exploring the kayak classes and canoe classes.
The basics of canoe slalom techniques
The goal for the slalom paddler is to race as fast as possible from the start line to finish line, negotiating up to 25 slalom gates without touching them. The gates must be negotiated in numerical order...Read more
