OTTAWA (May 13, 2021) – Canoe Kayak Canada (CKC) is pleased to announce the eighteen slalom athletes selected to compete in the 2021 International Canoe Federation (ICF) World Cups and Junior/U23 World Championships. These athletes will be competing internationally in canoe and kayak slalom and extreme slalom events.
Of these athletes, eleven qualified for the upcoming slalom World Cups in Prague, Czech Republic and Markkleeberg, Germany respectively, through a combination of pre-selection and regional Figure 8 assessments. The same assessments, as part of CKC’s Covid-19 strategy, were used to select nine Junior athletes and five U23 athletes travelling to Ljubljana, Slovenia in July.
“The pandemic has presented our athletes with very challenging and uncertain training conditions throughout the winter,” said James Cartwright, Senior Manager of High Performance and Coach Development at CKC. “The Slalom Olympic program travelled to Europe for better training conditions this winter to prepare for Tokyo but we have developed a creative selection mechanism for the paddlers remaining in Canada. We are utilizing a regional flatwater based assessment to select the team to join the Tokyo group and compete in the first two World Cups and Junior/U23 World Championships. It’s critical that our athletes return to international competition as we prepare for Tokyo and Paris.”
In preparation for Tokyo, an upcoming selection race in Krakow, Poland on May 29th will be used to determine the qualification of a Women’s C1 paddler for the Tokyo Olympic Games. This final selection will round out the complete slalom team heading to Japan to represent Canada. To learn more about the status of Tokyo qualifications, click here.
A full team list for these upcoming international competitions can be found here.
2021 ICF Slalom World Cup 1
When: June 11-13, 2021
Where: Prague, Czech Republic
How to Follow:Event website
2021 ICF Slalom World Cup 2
When: June 18-20, 2021
Where: Markkleeberg, Germany
How to Follow:Event website
2021 ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships
When: July 6-11, 2021
Where: Ljubljana, Slovenia
How to Follow:Event website
The ICF will confirm the competitions closer to the dates, with consideration to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
About Canoe Kayak Canada
anoe Kayak Canada is the national governing body for competitive paddling in Canada, one of Canada’s top performing summer sports with a total of 24 Olympic medals, and a leader in the Paralympic movement. Canoe Kayak Canada is a member-based organization that includes an intricate network of clubs as well as provincial, territorial and divisional paddling associations. Elite National Team athletes proudly represent Canada at various competitions around the globe – most notably the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Pan American Games, ICF World Cups as well as Junior, Under 23 and Senior World Championships.