Canoe Sprint - London Olympics 2012
Requiring sustained bursts of speed and power, Canoe Sprint at the London 2012 Games will offer thrilling, down-to-the-wire finishes.
Did you know?
The oldest Canoe club in the world, the Royal Canoe Club of London, was founded in 1866.
The Canoe Sprint 200m race will make its Olympic debut at London 2012.
Kayaks have a foot-controlled steering rudder bar.
Key facts
Venue: Eton Dorney
Dates: Monday 6 – Saturday 11 August
Medal events: 12
Athletes: 246
The histories of the canoe and the kayak go back hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that the first official canoe and kayak races were held. The sport now takes two forms, the oldest of which is the power-packed, fiercely competitive Canoe Sprint discipline.
The basics
Canoe Sprint events are head-to-head races conducted on still water, as opposed to the white water time trials of the Canoe Slalom competition. Athletes race over distances of 200m, 500m or 1,000m, either solo, in pairs or in teams of four. Athletes use a single-bladed paddle from a kneeling position in canoes, which are steered by the athlete making corrective strokes with their paddle. In kayaks, which are steered using a small rudder, the competitors sit in the boat and use a paddle with two blades.
Olympic Canoe Sprint, past and present
Canoeing first featured as a demonstration sport at the 1924 Paris Games. It became a full Olympic sport in 1936, when races were held over of 1,000m and 10,000m. Since then, the Olympic events have grown shorter: the last long-distance events were held at the Melbourne Games of 1956.
For London 2012, the Canoe Sprint competition will be held at Eton Dorney, one of the best still-water courses in the world with a wonderful location close to Windsor Castle. Races will be held over distances of 1,000m, 500m and, for the first time at the Games, 200m: with the fastest races taking just 30 seconds to complete, it’s bound to be very popular with spectators and athletes alike.
Jargon buster
Bow: The front of the craft.
Stern: The rear of the craft.
Paddler: A canoeist.
Start gate: The yellow metal ‘boot’ in which the bow of the boat sits before the start of a race.
Stroke rate: The number of paddle strokes per minute.
Wing paddle: A paddle with a curved, almost spoon-shaped blade.
Get involved
Contact your national association to find a local club and get information on development schemes for up-and-coming paddlers. For information, visit the websites of Canoe England, Canoe Scotland, the Welsh Canoeing Association, the Canoe Association of Northern Ireland and the International Canoe Federation.
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