Canoeing – Champions
ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships
The ICF and the Canoe Sprint World Championships hosts the international events for canoeing, one of the two is organized by the International Canoe Federation and is known as ICF. Since 1970, the World Championships have been organized every year in non-Summer Olympic years. The next World Championship will be held in 2017 at Racice, Czech Republic.
ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships
The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, organized by ICF, hosts the international events in canoeing. The World Championships have taken place every year in the non-Summer Olympics years since the 2002. The next ICF Canoe Slalom World Championship is going to be held in 2017 at Pau, France.
The Australian Slalom and Wildwater Championships
These are canoeing championships held in Australia. The 2016 Australian Slalom and Wildwater Championships and the Australian Schools Championships were held in Tasmania.
Let us now discuss briefly about some of the champions who have made a mark in Canoeing.
David Florence
David Florence is a British slalom canoeist. He was the world champion in individual canoe C- 1 in slalom in 2013 and 2015, and also the champion in 2013 for pair canoe with Richard Hounslow in slalom of C-2.
He won a silver medal in the men’s slalom C-1 at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He had won a silver medal in the C-2 event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Michal Martikán
Michal Martikán is a Slovak slalom canoeist He has been competing since the mid-1990s. He became the first athlete to win a gold medal in Olympic Games in the year 1996 for Slovakia after its independence in 1993.
He won five Olympics medal in total which include two golds, two silvers and one bronze. He has also won the World Championship title in the C-1 individual category four times.
Franz Anton
Franz Anton is a slalom canoeist from Germany who has won six medals in ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. These six medals include one gold, four silvers, and one bronze. He won gold medal in 2015, two silvers (one each in 2010 and 2013) and two silvers in 2015.
In European Championships, he has won two silvers one in 2013 and the other in 2015. He has also won two bronzes in European Championships one in 2013 and the other in 2016.
Kateřina Kudějová
Kateřina Kudějová is a Czech slalom canoeist who has won many medals in various senior and junior championships. She has won one silver in 2011, one gold in 2013, and two golds in 2015 in World Championships.
She has won four medals in European Championships which include one gold in 2011, one bronze in 2013, one gold in 2014, and one bronze in 2015.
Kudějová has participated in U23 World Championships and has won four golds. In U23 European Championships, she has won three golds, two silvers, and two bronzes.