Canoe slalom is an exciting and dynamic sport which tests athlete’s skill, speed and precision in unpredictable waters.
Athletes must navigate a canoe or kayak through a whitewater course, manoeuvring between a series of hanging gates as quickly and accurately as possible.
Canoe slalom was introduced as an official Olympic sport in Munich 1972, but became a core sport in 1992 at the Barcelona Games and has since been ever-present.
There are two types of boat in canoe slalom – canoe and kayak.
Canoe – is where the paddler kneels in the boat and uses a single-bladed paddle.
Kayak – the paddler sits in the boat and uses a double-bladed paddle.
About the course
Each canoe slalom course is different but tends to range between 150 metres and 300 metres in length, also consisting of a maximum of 25 gates for the athletes to contest.
The gates are colour-coded which signifies the route in which the paddler needs to progress through.
Green Gates: These are downstream gates that paddlers must pass through in the direction of the water flow.
Red Gates: Upstream gates that paddlers must pass through against the direction of the water flow – there will be a minimum of six red gates on each set course.
The rules
The goal with canoe slalom is to navigate the course in the shortest possible time, passing through all gates correctly.
Penalties are incurred for touching or missing gates:
Touching a Gate: Adds 2 seconds to the paddler’s time.
Missing a Gate: Adds 50 seconds to the paddler’s time.
The paddler with the lowest combined time (raw time plus penalties) is the winner.
Olympic success
Britain has won ten Olympic medals which all started with Gareth Marriott’s C1 silver at the 1992 Games, Team GB has seen a wave of silverware including Timothy Baillie and Etienne Stott’s C2 gold on home waters at London 2012.
Recent Olympic success has come from Joe Clarke’s K1 gold at Rio 2016 and Mallory Franklin’s Tokyo 2020 silver in the women’s C1.
Clarke and Franklin also head into the Paris Games as slalom World Champions after winning gold at Lee Valley White Water Centre.
The events and who to look out for:
There are four events in canoe slalom, with the women’s canoe added to the Games schedule for Tokyo 2020 – Britain’s Mallory Franklin won an inaugural silver for TeamGB.
Women’s Canoe – Mallory Franklin
Men’s Canoe – Adam Burgess
Women’s Kayak – Kimberley Woods
Men’s Kayak – Joe Clarke MBE
Olympic Schedule
Canoe Slalom and Kayak Cross will take place from 27 July – 5 August at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
All times UK
27 July – 14:00 – Men’s Canoe and Women’s Kayak Heats
28 July – 14:30 – Women’s Kayak Semi-Final and Final
29 July – 14:30 – Men’s Canoe Semi-Final and Final
30 July – 14:00 – Women’s Canoe and Men’s Kayak Heats
31 July – 14:30 – Women’s Canoe Semi-Final and Final
1 August – 14:30 – Men’s Kayak Semi-Final and Final
You can find the full Canoe Slalom schedule online here.
Live coverage of the Olympic Games will be available on the Discovery+ platforms, BBC and Eurosport with specific channel information provided nearer the events.
There will also be coverage of the Olympic Games on Talksport.
More to come! Kayak Cross will take centre stage
All four Brits will also be in kayak cross action from 2 – 5 August as the sport makes its Olympic debut at Paris 2024!
Read all about the new exciting discipline here
