If you don’t know who to root for when watching four paddlers tussling for top spot in kayak cross, just pick your favourite colour.
That’s how American paddler Evy Leibfarth often decides when she is a spectator as she becomes engrossed in the action.
Leibfarth of Sylva, North Carolina compares kayak cross to snowboard cross and ski cross that have become huge hits at the Winter Olympics.
“Everyone has a coloured bid so it is really easy to choose someone and root for them all the way down the course even if you don’t know the athlete,” said Leibfarth.
“I remember doing that with snowboard cross.
“I love choosing my favourite colour which is red and saying I want them to win.
“Just having something like that is really cool.
“I think this is going to be the Summer Olympics version of (snowboard cross and ski cross).
“I think any kind of sport where there is some contact and some drama, it’s so exciting to do as an athlete and to watch as a spectator.”
Using plastic boats and double-bladed paddles, competitors begin the kayak cross race by sliding off a ramp more than two metres above the water and splashing onto the course as one.
Athletes then need to negotiate upstream and downstream buoys and complete a mandatory kayak roll, with the first to cross the finish line taking the victory.
Kayak cross was demonstrated for the first time at an International Canoe Federation Canoe Slalom World Cup in 2015 before becoming a medal event the following year and then debuted at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in 2017.
It was already a fixture on the World Cup circuit when 20-year-old Leibfarth arrived on the international scene but she has witnessed the great growth of kayak cross.
“I raced my first World Cup in kayak cross in 2019 because my dad was really excited about the sport,” said Leibfarth.
“He kind of saw where the sport was going to go and I was thinking this is one more chance to medal.
“Since then it has grown so much.
“At the start there were only maybe 10 starts at World Cups for it whereas now we probably have 60 girls out here doing it which is pretty sweet.”
Kayak cross competition will begin on August 2 and end on August 5 when the medals will be decided.
Leibfarth is a two-time junior world champion in kayak cross and won senior bronze at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in 2021.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympian is expected to be among the contenders for the kayak cross title in Paris but she insists she will need Lady Luck on her side to emerge victorious.
“Slalom is very precise, very planned,” said Leibfarth.
“We all close our eyes and visualise before the race exactly what strokes we need to take and where, so it all depends on us whereas in kayak cross it is not like that at all.
“You don’t know where the other girls are going to go.
“You don’t know if a gate is going to be swinging a different way.
“It is so much about reacting and I think that is also what makes it so exciting for spectators as you never know what is going to happen.
“You can be really talented at kayak cross and have really great strategies but in the end it comes down to the luck that you are given and that’s pretty cool to watch.
“I also think that the Olympics are a great opportunity because it is the one time in four years where you get to show these more niche sports like Canoe Slalom to the world.
“To have a sport as exciting as kayak cross is going to bring so many viewers and bring so much excitement to the sport.
“Even in Augsburg when it was raining all weekend, we had the biggest crowd come out for the kayak cross event.
“It was a really great environment and I think that multiplied by 100 times (at the Olympics) is just going to be amazing.
“I’m so excited for people to see it.”
Useful kayak cross links
