New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington has been given the chance to compete for an historic four canoe sprint gold medals and her Hungarian rival Danuta Kozak will get three opportunities to add to the five gold medals she has already won at next month’s Tokyo Olympic Games.
In what is set to be one of the great rivalries of the Tokyo Olympics, Carrington and Kozak are set to clash in the women’s K1 500, K2 500 and K4 500. Carrington will also contest the K1 200, the event in which she has won gold at the past two Olympics.
No canoe sprint athlete has ever won more than three gold medals at a single Olympic Games. Hungary’s Danuta Kozak, a strong rival for Carrington, won gold in the K1 500, K2 500 and the K4 500 at the Rio Olympics.
Carrington is also in line to become the first canoe sprint athlete to win four medals of any colour at a single Games.
The final deadline for canoe sprint nominations this week also resulted in a late call-up for Great Britain’s Katie Reid in the women’s C1 200, after Russia returned an athlete quota it did not need.
A total of 32 athletes have been nominated to compete in the women’s C1 200 at its Olympic debut, and 14 boats have been entered into the C2.
There will be a record 51 countries competing in the canoe sprint competition in Tokyo, with Belize making its Olympic debut. There will be 249 athletes, two more than in Rio but short of the record 317 athletes who competed in Atlanta in 1996.
Germany’s Ronald Rauhe will compete at his sixth Olympics in Tokyo, after making his debut in Sydney in 2000. Josefa Idem, who competed at eight Olympic Games for West Germany and Italy, holds the record for most Games appearances.
The oldest canoe sprint athlete in Tokyo will be Kazakhstan’s Natalya Sergeyeva, who turned 45 in May, while the youngest athlete will be Kohl Horton from the Cook Islands. Horton turned 17 in May, and is less than one month younger than teammate Jade Tierney.
There will be nine teenagers competing in Tokyo.
Former Iranian paddler refugee Saeid Fazloula will also compete in Tokyo after being named last month in the IOC’s refugee team.
