The 2025 International Canoe Federation season delivered top-class action, drama, emotions, and surprises. In the second of our moments of 2025, we look at when Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska reigned supreme in Penrith.
After a kayak silver medal at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Zwolinska did not enjoy the best of starts to the season.
She missed a huge portion of the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup Series due to illness.
For many athletes, that kind of setback derails momentum. Zwolinska? She used it as fuel.
Because it’s not about how you start, but how you finish that truly matters.
At the 2025 ICF Slalom World Championships in Australia, she came up with a sensational performance in Sydney, triumphing by more than four and a half seconds to clinch the canoe gold medal.
A first world title meant the 26-year-old was brimming with confidence, and 24 hours later, she produced another dream run to seal the women’s K1 gold Down Under.
That feat meant she became only the second paddler to do the C1-K1 double at the World Championships after the legendary Jessica Fox, who did so in 2014 and 2018.
“I don't know what to say,” said Zwolinska after the K1 world title.
“Like I said, K1 has always been my goal because it's the category that I feel the most confident in.
“I knew it was possible to get a second medal because Jess Fox has done it.
“She has always been my inspiration.
“When I was younger, my goal was to follow her path.
“I have seen that she has won many medals in one championship before. So I thought ‘I can do it too’.”
With a unique chance of winning a hat-trick of golds, Zwolinska was up against the French duo of Angele Hug and Camille Prigent, and Spain’s Maialen Chourraut.
While gold slipped away from her hands this time, she still managed to stand on the podium with a bronze medal, wrapping up a dream week in Australia.
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