The History of White Water Canoeing at the Olympics

By Paul Makepeace

White water canoeing has had an interesting past in the Olympic programme as it has been taken out a few times and then reinstated as a sport. Canoeing has been in the Olympics since 1932 when a form of canoeing, the canoe sprint was introduced to the Olympic programme. The canoe sprint has 12 medal events in the programme and includes a distances of 500m and 1000m, each of which are highly demanding and requires the utmost skill and endurance. Many of the canoeists were from sporting background originally and switched to the sport when they didn't make the grade. This extra enthusiasm and drive moved the sport forward to what it is today. There will be some changes in the London 2012 Olympic programme as the 500m event will be replaced by the shorter 200m race, this will be the first time this event will be featured in the games, as promises to be an exciting inclusion for the sport.

Other disciplines in canoeing then became apparent, one of the most popular, the canoe slalom made its debut in the 1972 Olympics, we then didn't see it again until the 1992 Barcelona games. This was where Great Britain won their first ever medal in the Canadian Singles Class winning, Gareth Marriott won a Silver medal and was the starting point for a huge breakthrough in interest and participation in White Water Rafting and Canoeing.

The first Great Britain Gold medal came at the 2008 Olympics when Tim Brabants became champion of the K1M event in Beijing. He then followed up this history breaking feat by then taking a Bronze Medal in the K1M 500m event, this was even more astounding as it was just 24 hours later. This put him down as the most successful Great Britain Canoeists in Olympic history.

Tim's endeavours in 2008 has inspired a new generation of canoeists which are taking the sport to a new level in Great Britain. The UK now has some of the finest facilities in the world in which has helped the training and appeal for the next Olympics in London 2012. Many of these new facilities would not have been possible without the success of individuals and the Great Britain tem in the previous Olympics. The funding and interest in the sport demanded that UK facilities improved and came up to standards with the rest of the world so that Great Britain can train and grow to the next level, to be competing in major competitions in the future.

Come and experience the UK's Newest White Water Rafting Centre. Get ready to experience the thrills, obstacles and drops of world class White Water Rafting.

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