About Whitewater Slalom

Fresh Water / Clean Fun / Healthy Competition

In Whitewater Slalom competitions, paddlers race their canoes or kayaks while navigating through pairs of poles, called "gates", set up over the waves, eddies, currents, and rocks on a 300 meter stretch of challenging rapids. If a competitor touches one of the poles, or misses a gate altogether, a time penalty is added to his or her elapsed time. They are single kayak (K1) events, for men and women, and canoe events, also for men and women, in both single (C1) and doubles boats (C2).

Although both canoes and kayaks had their origin in North America, it was the Europeans who first made whitewater slalom an international sport, organizing a World Championships in Switzerland in 1949.  Whitewater Slalom made its Olympic debut at the Munich Olympics in 1972, but was then removed from the program until its return to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.  It has been part of the Olympic Games ever since.  World Championships and the World Cup are held every year, as well as a new "open" set of races, the World Series.