Freshly minted world champions and athletes who earned their countries Olympic and Paralympic quotas will line up this week in Paris for the final ICF World Cup of the 2023 season.

For most of the athletes it will be their first look at the Vaires Sur Marne sprint and paracanoe course, where in less than 12 months athletes will race for gold at the Paris 2024 Games.

Only four of the canoe sprint world champions crowned in Duisburg have not made the journey to Paris, while in paracanoe only two Duisburg gold medalists will not be lining up.

Among the champions who will take part are Czech Martin Fuksa in the men’s C1, the German men’s and New Zealand women’s K4 crews, Chinese women’s C2 Tokyo gold medalists Shixiao Xu and Mengya Sun, the Danish women’s K2 of Emma Jorgensen and Frederikke Matthiesen and the German men’s C2 of Peter Kretschmer and Tim Hecker.

In paracanoe world champions Curtis McGrath and Dylan Littlehales of Australia, Charlotte Henshaw, Emma Wiggs and Laura Sugar of Great Britain, and Hungary’s Peter Kiss and Fernando Rufino have all made the trip to the French capital.

Only Olympic and Paralympic events will be contested this week. In many of the races all the medalists from Duisburg will once again take to the water, looking for a chance to experience the conditions before next year’s Games.

New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington, who won three gold medals in Duisburg, has opted not to contest the K1 500, but will team up once again with K4 partner Alicia Hoskin in the women’s K2, while Great Britain’s Charlotte Henshaw will return to the VL3 after missing the race in Duisburg.

In the men’s K1 1000 Hungarians Adam Varga and Balint Kopasz will go head-to-head again, while 2021 world champion Katie Vincent from Canada will once again contest the women’s C1 200.

The ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Cup begins on Wednesday and will run through until Friday. More information can be found here.