President's Message Q4 2024

Dear Friends,  

What an incredible year it has been for our sport. The Olympics and Paralympics, top-class World Championships and World Cups, a Super Cup at the end of the season that showcased the diversity of our various disciplines to millions of spectators, a centenary anniversary we celebrated together throughout the year and an ICF Congress in Antalya, Türkiye which demonstrated what makes us strong and successful: unity and common goals despite all our differences.  

I think we can all be proud of this year and I know that we owe this success to thousands of colleagues across our community who represent 171 National Federations and many more clubs across all five continents. 

But enough of the emotional retrospective and let`s move on to a factual report on the period following the Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

There was no time to rest after the Games, as we immediately turned our focus to LA 2028. After Oklahoma was named an outstanding host for the slalom and kayak cross competitions, we are now promoting a proposal for two additional events in the Canoe Sprint Programme for the LA 2028 Olympic Games: an innovative new 5K sprint format featuring a portage. This proposal has already been presented to the IOC Programme Commission, as well as in-person meetings with IOC President Thomas Bach and IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell. At the end of January 2025, Richard, Lluis and I will fly to LA to meet the OCOG and discuss these additional competitions. I must emphasise that, regardless of the strength of our proposal, additional events cannot be guaranteed due to the strict criteria for athlete quotas and medal allocations of the Games. While we will present a strong case, we recognise the competitive nature of the process and the challenges for all stakeholders to maintain a sustainable Games. 

The first Super Cup, held in Hangzhou, brought together five disciplines in one place and showcased the breadth of our sport to Chinese audiences through live coverage on the national sports channel CCTV 5, as well as to the rest of the world via Eurosport’s live coverage, featuring three days of two-hour finals. This event brought us closer to our vision of one day hosting a Paddle Games that unite as many of our disciplines as possible in a single location.  

In Hangzhou, we also had numerous discussions, including with the member of the IOC EB Li Lingwei to present our sport and with representatives from one of China`s most famous universities, the Zhejiang University about potential cooperation and scientific support. 

Following the Congress decision to relocate our headquarters to Hungary, we have had various productive meetings in Hungary. Richard and I met with the President of the International Judo Federation, headquartered in Budapest for several years, and we discussed the legal requirements with the consultancy firm PwC. I also had the opportunity to discuss our move to Budapest with the Secretary of State for Sport Adam Schmidt, his deputy Gabor Schmidt and the legendary Katalin Kovacs. 

Having established the legal foundation for this move during our Congress in Antalya, we are now finalizing the necessary documentation, with registration in Hungary expected to be completed in early January. We are currently looking for a suitable office and are examining various options. As our sponsor BYD is also opening its headquarters for Europe in Budapest next year, we have asked them whether it is possible for us to rent space there on favorable terms. If this does not work out, we have various offers on the free real estate market. We will advertise the first jobs in January and aim to open our office at the end of the first quarter of 2025 after we have presented the structure and tasks of our now three offices to our Board for confirmation at the next meeting at the beginning of March. 

Important World Championships have also taken place in recent months, including Canoe Polo in China, the first in Asia in the last 20 years, Dragon Boat in the Philippines, the largest in ICF history with 27 countries participating, and, for the first time on a pure regatta course with all-female juries, the SUP World Championships in Sarasota, USA. These events have brought an outstanding year of competition to a close. 

The inclusion of three new organisers aligned perfectly with our strategy of popularising our sport in other countries that have had less of a relationship with our sport. This has proven successful, particularly in non-Olympic disciplines, where many athletes, often covering their own costs, are attracted not only by professional competition but also by the added value we provide. 

At the end of the year, we can state that our fee-based offer to broadcast competitions on our YouTube channel has been successful, generating a six-figure sum to help cover rising broadcasting costs in the future. Thank you to all subscribers for supporting our sport. 

Together with the President of World Rowing and the IDBF, we participated in COP29 and had the opportunity to meet the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. As a result, the President decided to consider the construction of a slalom course in Azerbaijan.  

Lluis and Cyril, in coordination with our new Chair Richard Fox, have already had initial discussions with the relevant stakeholders to advance this project. 

In Halifax, I was able to extend the condolences of the canoeing family to the family of our late honorary member Frank Garner and attended a memorial service together with around 300 athletes, officials and friends for Frank at his “Frank Garner” boathouse in Dartmouth. 

The series of meetings in 2024 concluded with a productive session with my Vice Presidents in Rome. Based on the results of our ICF Congress, we discussed the upcoming tasks in the new electoral term. 

Starting this December, we are pleased to welcome IMAS, a long-standing friend of the ICF, as our newest sponsor. This partnership reflects our shared goal of promoting and developing paddle sports worldwide. Over the next two years, IMAS will focus on enhancing and innovating timing and scoring services to elevate TV broadcasts and digital production. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all ICF sponsors for your continued commitment and support, which provide valuable resources to benefit our athletes and further develop our sport. 

We will fondly remember the ICF Congress not only for the warm hospitality of the Turkish Federation, our centenary anniversary celebration, but also for the professional preparation by our office. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank our Secretary General Richard and his staff team for their outstanding work, not only in preparing the Congress but throughout the year. It is great to be able to build on the professional cooperation between our staff, our Continental Associations and our many stakeholders as the basis of our success. 

And finally, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all of you and to the entire global canoeing community for an outstanding year in 2024. I wish everyone a healthy and successful new year 2025 and let us all continue to work together in the new year to develop our beloved sport further. 

By Thomas Konietzko, President of the ICF