52 years after it made its Olympic debut, and for the tenth time in history, canoe slalom will be part of the biggest multi-sport event on the planet in Paris next year.
In 1972 slalom made its Games debut, what turned out to be a once-off at the Munich Olympics. The East Germans dominated, winning all four gold medals on the Augsburg course – the men’s K1, C1 and C2, and the women’s K1.
Augsburg’s Ice Channel is still going strong, recently undergoing a refurbishment and celebrating the 50th anniversary of 1972 with a very successful ICF World Championships in 2022.
Sadly slalom was bumped from the Olympic program for the next four Games. But in 1992, Barcelona organisers threw the sport a lifeline, and the world’s best paddlers headed to La Seu in the Spanish mountains.
On this occasion the medals were spread among four nations. Italy’s Pierpaolo Ferrazi won the men’s K1, Lukas Pollert took the C1 for Czechoslovakia, Elisabeth Micheler won German gold in the women’s K1, and Scott Strausbaugh and Joe Jacobi the men’s C2 for the United States, the only Olympic slalom gold won by the US.
The men’s C2 remained on the Olympic program until 2016, with Pavol and Peter Honschorner winning gold in the event at three consecutive Games – Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, and Beijing in 2008. They also won bronze in London in 2012.
In 2020 women’s C1 made its debut, after a long campaign to be included. Many of the top women’s K1 paddlers also contested C1, but it was Australia’s Jessica Fox – already the most successful female slalom paddler in the history of the sport, who took the inaugural gold.
Fox has also won K1 silver (London) and bronze in Rio and Tokyo. In Paris she has the chance to equal and go past the medal record of Slovakia’s Michal Martikan, who has five Olympic medals in his collection. It will give Fox more Olympic medals than any other competitor in the history of canoe slalom.
The most successful individual canoe slalom athlete in the history of the Olympics is Frenchman Tony Estanguet – fittingly the President of the Paris 2024 organising committee. Estanguet won C1 gold in Sydney, Athens and London.
Stepanka Hilgertova, initially for Czechoslovakia and then for the Czech Republic, and Slovakia’s Elena Kaliska, are the two most successful female Olympians, with two gold each.
Slovakia is also the most successful canoe slalom Olympic nation, with eight gold, four silver and three bronze. France with seven gold and Germany with five are next best (although if you combine Germany and East Germany, there are nine gold.) 19 countries have won medals, including Togo, Japan and the Russian Federation with one bronze each.
Of the nine Olympic canoe slalom venues used, only one – Athens from 2004 – is no longer used. Every other venue regularly hosts canoe slalom competitions, with the exception of Atlanta from 1996, which was a natural course.
In Paris four slalom medals will be decided – men’s and women’s C1 and K1. There will also be the addition of men’s and women’s kayak cross, a first-time Olympic event. The competition will be held at the newly built Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, which will host a world cup slalom event later this year.
