As she made her way through the throng of excited schoolchildren yelling her name and high-fiving, Stefanie Horn’s memories of almost 20 years ago came flooding back.

In 2003, as a wide-eyed 12-year-old, Horn and her best friend were the schoolchildren on the banks of Augsburg’s Ice Channel, cheering on the world’s best canoe slalom athletes and dreaming of maybe one day being the one everyone was excited to see.

Horn was no stranger to canoe slalom, having already had several training sessions under the watchful eye of a coach she later found out was an athlete at the 1972 Olympics - but more on that later.

Her experience in 2003, the last time Augsburg hosted a world championships, convinced her she wanted to become an elite slalom athlete.

19 years and a change of country later, Horn was back at the famous Ice Channel on Thursday, this time on the water and laying down the fastest qualifying time in the women’s K1, and reflecting on the memories of two decades earlier, some tinged with sadness.

“I grew up here, I has here in 2003 with my best friend who decided that he did not want to live anymore, so I still remember when we were watching in 2003 here, it was such a nice moment,” Horn said.

“We came here for every team camp, in Easter and summer. I have really good memories with my friends here, my family is coming, my niece is going to see my first race, she’s really young and it will be very emotional for me.”

Horn, who now races for Italy after beginning her career in Germany, is also proud to be part of the celebrations of the 50-year anniversary of canoe slalom making its Olympic debut, on the same course where she and her friend watched the world championships in 2003.

And although she didn’t know it at the time, she has a strong link to the 1972 Munich canoe slalom competition. Her first coach, the man who guided her into a kayak and onto the whitewater for her first nervous experience, competed for West Germany at slalom’s Olympic debut.

Theo Neusing competed in the men’s C2, and is in Augsburg this weekend proudly watching on.

“I was really surprised, because I didn’t know that my coach who took me the first time in the water, he was competing in the Olympics here in 1972,” Horn remembers.

“He’s still the same. I hadn’t seen him for 15 or 17 years because he is living in a small city close to my hometown, and it was so nice to see him back. He just had a little bit greyer hair, but he’s still the same.

“It’s like we had never had all this time we didn’t see each other.”

And walking from the water on Thursday after qualifying fastest, and seeing the hundreds of excited school children watching on in awe – it was like 2003 all over again.

“It’s so nice to be here, because everyone is cheering every athlete, and school classes are giving high fives to everyone, they are really sweet.”

Pics by Balint Vekassy