The International Canoe Federation will make history in 2027 when La Seu d'Urgell and Sort in Spain host world championships in three different paddling categories during a combined event.
The 1992 Olympic canoe slalom region will host the 2027 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, which will include Kayak Cross the new event for the Paris 2024 Olympics, while the 2027 ICF Freestyle and Wildwater World Championships will be held nearby in Sort during a thrilling week of international competition. The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships will also double as on Olympic qualifying event for LA 2028.
The Board of the ICF meeting in Budapest was impressed by the breadth of the La Seu d'Urgell submission, and its vision of a reduced carbon footprint for a major sporting event. It also meets a key goal of the ICF’s Fit For Future strategy to have multi-sport events at one location, to make paddle sports more environmentally sustainable.
The ICF executive committee also announced Szeged, Hungary, as the host for the 2027 ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships, which will also serve as LA 2028 qualifiers.
The 2027 ICF Junior and U23 canoe sprint world championships will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, while Denmark will once again welcome the world’s best marathon paddlers when Silkeborg hosts the 2027 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.
The committee also confirmed the ICF world cup program for both canoe sprint and canoe slalom for 2025. In slalom, Prague (Czech Republic), La Seu d'Urgell (Spain), Pau (France), Augsburg (Germany) and Tacen (Slovenia) will all host world cups.
For canoe sprint, competitions in 2025 will be held in Szeged and Poznan (Poland).
“The ICF Board would like to thank all national federations who bid to host ICF events,” President Thomas Konietzko said.
“The number of bids we received is a strong vote of support for the excitement and attraction of our sports. I would encourage those federations who were not successful on this occasion to bid again in the future, and for new countries who would like to be part of our program to make their interest known.”
