Canoe slalom....a summary.

 

White water Canoe Slalom has been in the Olympics since 1972. In 2012 the fast and exciting sport featured in the 2012 London games. Men’s and women’s singles and doubles events, in canoes and kayaks competed. What a thrill it was to watch a home Olympics!

Alice Haining races in the U23 and senior women’s kayak event, K1W. In canoe slalom you must have finely tuned skills to make the boat go fast and agile to whip the boat around the poles. Kayaks are built light (8kg race weight) to allow maximum speed and manoeuvrability. Competitors have to navigate down an 18-25 gate course where 6 of these gates will be up-streams. Penalties are added for touching or missing gates.

In recent years interest in Canoe Slalom has grown as a sport, where international races are now televised. In 2014 BBC Sport travelled to Deep creek, America, to televise team GB compete at the Canoe Slalom World Championships. This year it is being held on the London Olympic site, Lee Valley.