The international canoeing community has elected the athletes they want to help guide the sport into the future, with a strong blend of youth and experience and a shared passion to ensure all the International Canoe Federation’s disciplines will continue to thrive.

The latest discipline to elect members to the athletes committee was canoe slalom, which carried out voting during last week’s ICF World Championships in Pau, France.

A high turn-out of voters elected eight-time C1 World Championship gold medallist, Alexander Slafkovsky of Slovakia, and two-time Australian Olympian Jessica Fox to the eight-member panel.

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Slafkovsky and Fox join Russia’s Yurii Postrigai and Hungary’s Krisztina Fazekas Zur, who were elected following a ballot at the ICF Sprint Canoe World Championships in Racice in August.

Hayley Jo-Nixon, a canoe marathon paddler from South Africa, Claire O’Hara, a canoe freestyler from Great Britain, and Paracanoeists Tim Lodge (Great Britain) and Amanda Reynolds (Australia) were appointed to the committee by the ICF Executive Committee and board earlier this year.

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“We are tremendously fortunate in our sport to have so many athletes who are passionate not just about their own performances, but also their sport overall,” ICF President, Jose Perurena, said.

“This was reflected in the enthusiasm for the election process to the Athletes Committee. We had excellent candidates, and a very strong response from athletes across the board.

“We are confident we have a very strong mix of athletes who have now been elected to help steer our sports into the future. I look forward to working with all of them as we strive to grow our culture and our participation levels.”

The ICF also conducted athlete forums at both the sprint and slalom World Championships, with a large turn-out at both. Athletes had their say on the direction of their sport, and also heard the ICF’s position on future challenges confronting both disciplines.

The eight-strong committee will elect a Chair who will be their representative on the ICF Executive Committee.

“Through the forums and the committee elections we have continued the strong relationship between the athletes and the officials, and we will continue to strengthen that bond into the future,” Mr Perurena said.

“I would like to thank everyone who took part in both processes, congratulate the successful athlete candidates, and also say a very big thank you to those athletes who were not successful.

“They have contributed to what was a very robust democratic process, one that bodes well for the future of all our canoeing disciplines.”

The ICF would also like to thank all the outgoing members of the Athletes Committee for the outstanding work they carried out. They have played a very big part in helping build canoeing up to where it is today.

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