Canoe sprint
Discipline in sport of canoeing and kayaking / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Canoe sprint is a water sport in which athletes race in specially designed canoes or kayaks on calm water over a short distance. Prior to November 2008, canoe sprint was known as flatwater racing. Traditionally the term canoeing is used as a hypernym for both kayaking and canoeing.
Highest governing body | International Canoe Federation |
---|---|
First modern-day competition | 1869 |
Characteristics | |
Contact | No |
Team members | 1, 2 or 4 (depending on boat class) |
Mixed-sex | Separate competitions |
Type | Water sport, outdoor |
Equipment | Kayak or Canoe, paddle (single or double bladed) |
Venue | River, artificial lake, canal |
Glossary | Glossary of canoeing terms |
Presence | |
Olympic | since 1936 (men only); since 1948 (both men and women) |
Paralympic | since 2016 |
Most elite and championship level racing is conducted over distances of 200, 500, 1000 and 5000 meters in several lanes marked by buoys. The boat classes that compete over these distances almost exclusively consist of one, two or four athletes.
Modern canoeing as a competitive sport can be traced to the mid-19th century, when travellers popularised competitive canoeing in central Europe and North America. Around 1900 the first national and international canoeing federations were formed, leading to international competitions in the first quarter of the 20th century. Male canoeists have competed at the Summer Olympic Games since 1936. Women's canoeing was added to the Olympic programme in 1948. Today, there are eleven boat classes which race at the Olympics. In addition, the sport's governing body, the International Canoe Federation (ICF), holds an annual World Championship with many more boat classes. Canoe sprint is one of the two Olympic canoeing disciplines, the other is canoe slalom. On the whole, Europe has dominated the sport, winning over 90% of all available medals.[1]