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

RIO DE JANEIRO - Nigeria's first and only Olympic paddler Johnathan AKINYEMI (NGR) is in no doubt about his priorities after leaving his boat and father-turned-coach stranded in Frankfurt Airport on his way to Rio 2016.

“I felt a little bit guilty about abandoning my dad,” AKINYEMI said after training at the Whitewater Stadium. “But I have to say I missed the kayak more."

All three components of the Nigerian canoe slalom team had spent an anxious 36 hours in the German hub after a delayed flight from their home airport of Manchester meant a missed...Read more

The athletes are really the heart of the Olympics. Here we provide some insights into the paddlers that are representing their nation at the Deodoro canoe slalom. 

From my experience, these paddlers have been in the top end of the sport for about 13 years or more, at a team level for more than 10. The average age in this K1M class is 25. Olympics medallists have usually competed at a previous Olympics and have likely medalled at a previous World Championship or World Cup level. Many were successful junior athletes before they progressed into under 23 and seniors...Read more

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

Today we examine the canoe classes. C1M is an excellent way of analysing canoe slalom. C2M is spectacular to watch as these big boats, with two paddlers, squeeze their way through narrow slalom gates on big whitewater. Here we look at the equipment, pros and cons and some top paddlers past and present.

C1M – Canadian Men’s Single 

C1M is pronounced see-one men, meaning a male athlete kneeling in a closed cockpit canoe with a single bladed paddle.

The C1 paddler kneels on pre-formed padded foam blocks inside the...Read more

I will spend today and tomorrow looking at the different classes. There are four medal events at the Olympics; two kayak classes and two canoe classes. Here we look at the equipment, pros and cons and some top paddlers past and present.

K1M - Kayak Men’s Single

K1M is pronounced kay-one-men signifying a male athlete paddling a single one seater closed cockpit kayak.

The kayak paddler is sitting in a seat with the legs stretched out in front of them against moulded knee braces, foam padding and footrests. The footrests are...Read more

The wonderful new Olympic venue in Deodoro further establishes canoe slalom in South America.

The World’s elite slalom paddlers first descended upon this new purpose built venue for the Olympic test event last November. International teams have been able to train on the course ahead of the Rio Olympics, which was also used as part of the selection process for the host Brazilian team.

The Deodoro course, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, is fed by 25 million litres of mildly chlorinated water. Interestingly, this was attracting 11,000 locals a day for a...Read more

As one might expect the qualification for nations for the Rio Olympics was complex, to say the least. In simple terms, there were two principle 2015 qualification events, where nations could qualify places for boats, in respective classes. 

The nations qualified boat places through the 2015 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships which actually took place on the London Olympic course at Lee Valley as well as through the 2015 Pan American Championships. Other continental qualifiers followed later. Still...Read more

We are anticipating five days of exhilarating competition to test the paddler's supreme skill, strength and mental toughness down a minimum of 200 metres of extreme whitewater.

We are assured four new Olympic Canoe Slalom Champions as none of the previous Olympic Champions have qualified to race in Rio.

There are four classes of boat as we crudely call them. OK, yes technically they are canoes and kayaks. Let me explain. There are two kayak classes:

• K1M – which is K one men, meaning a man sitting in a closed cockpit kayak with a double
...Read more

This is the first post of a regular blog where I will aim to bring you insights into the world of canoe slalom every day from now until the 12th of August. This digest will explain this exhilarating sport of canoe slalom, the Olympic Deodoro course venue, recent results from the ICF World Cup and which athletes (paddlers) to look out for that have qualified for their nations.

Look out for these posts in the next two weeks

• Full analysis of the 2016 season so far, who has qualified to represent their nation and who is on form;
...Read more