International Canoe Federation President Thomas Konietzko has promised to review appointment structures to ensure more women are appointed to influential positions at all levels of the sport.

Mr Konietzko used an end-of-year video address to the global paddling family to pledge more will be done to make the pathway to leadership roles for women much clearer.

“More women have taken up important positions in the national federations and the ICF structure during the last year,” Mr Konietzko said.

“We need to do better here and I can only encourage more women to get involved in our sport. We will improve the structures within the ICF and provide access to important positions especially for women.”

Mr Konietzko also promised to continue developing new initiatives across paddling sports, citing the success of the inaugural ICF Virtual World Cup earlier this month. And he said the ICF will continue to lead in the fields of sustainability and athlete safeguarding.

Thomas Konietzko’s end of year speech can be found here.

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