Canoe sprint is one of the two disciplines of the sport Canoeing.
Venue: Eton Dorney
Dates: Canoe Sprint: Sunday 6 August– Saturday 11 August
Gold medals: 12
Athletes: 246
Canoeing at the Olympic Games
Canoe Sprint reached the Olympic Games as a demonstration event in 1924. It became a full medal sport at Berlin 1936, with women first competing (in Kayak only) in London 1948.
How the competition runs
Canoe refers to both kayak and canoe. The kayak ‘paddler’ is in a sitting position with a double ended paddle and the canoe ‘paddler’ kneels in the boat using a single bladed paddle. The racing is head to head across 9 lanes with the objective to cross the line first. In the Sprint competitions, paddlers race across calm water over distances of 200m, 500m and 1000m. There are Olympic events for single athletes (C1, K1), pairs (C2, K2) and fours (K4). Both men and women race though women have yet to achieve Olympic status in Canoe.
Jargon buster
* Paddler: A canoeist
* Shaft: The narrow part of a paddle, gripped by the paddler.
* Blade: The end(s) of a paddle
* Wing paddle: a relatively new, spoon shape paddle type, now used exclusively
* Boat Control: Boats checked for weight and length to regulations.
* Bow: Front of the craft
* Cockpit: Mid section of the craft in which the ‘paddler’ sits
* Spraycover: Waterseal garment between the paddler and the cockpit.
* Regatta: A Canoe Sprint competition
* Wash: The rough water left behind a moving boat
* Start gate: Metal ‘Shoe’ in which the bow of the canoe sits immediately awaiting the start.
* Seeding: Paddlers are distributed by seeding, initially on World Ranking. In any one race the ‘better’paddlers are seeded towards the middle of the 9 lanes.
* Heats: Initial stages of the competition with a knock-out result.
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