Canoe Slalom 2024 Paris Olympics Review

Men’s C-1

Nicolas Gestin (France) dominated from the start, posting the fastest time on the first run of the heats and was even faster on the second, opening a two-second gap to Adam Burgess (Great Britain) and Matija Marinic (Croatia). In the semi-final, Miquel Trave (Spain) led for a long time only for Gestin to take the win by over three seconds. In the final, Matej Benus (Slovakia) set the early pace with 97.03, which Yves Bourhis (Senegal) briefly surpassed, only for him to be docked after the finish for missing a gate. A scrappy run from Benjamin Savsek (Slovenia) then went fastest, only to be also adjudged to have missed a gate. Adam Burgess (Great Britain) went into the lead despite an imperfect run. Benus went faster, but penalties cost him. Gestin started quickly and was green through the opening sectors. He carried that momentum, taking gold by a massive five seconds.

🥇Nicolas Gestin 🇫🇷

🥈Adam Burgess 🇬🇧

🥉Matej Benus 🇸🇰

Prediction analysis; 1 Medallist correct, 1 perfect prediction  

Gestin was more comfortable than I could have imagined. Benus and Burgess were largely overlooked

Men’s K-1

Titouan Castryck (France) led Jiri Prskavec (Czech Republic) after the first run of the heats, and then went faster in the second run. It was a messy semi-final as paddlers struggled for a clean run, with Joe Clarke (Great Britain) setting the fastest time. Opening the final, Pau Echaniz (Spain) led with 88.87, despite a penalty. Giovanni De Gennaro (Italy) delivered a clear run to lead with 88.22. Castryck led at the first checkpoint and widened the gap at the second, but would miss out on the lead by 0.2 seconds. Clarke was the final participant and led at the first checkpoint. He would get caught in the strong down-streams and could only take fifth. 

🥇Giovanni De Gennaro 🇮🇹

🥈Titouan Castryck 🇫🇷

🥉Pau Echaniz 🇪🇸

Prediction analysis; 1 Medallist correct, 1 perfect prediction  

I got De Gennaro correct. Castryck I thought would struggle under the pressure whilst Echaniz was someone I did not consider a real contender. 

Men’s Kayak Cross 

Joseph Clarke (Great Britain) set the fastest time in qualifying, ahead of Pedro Goncalves (Brazil). The big names that missed out on the quarter-finals included Adam Burgess (Great Britain), Felix Oschmautz (Austria), Goncalves, Matej Benus (Slovakia), Miquel Trave (Spain) and Peter Kauzer (Slovenia). The quarter-finals were won by Clarke, Finn Butcher (New Zealand), Boris Neveu (France) and Noah Hegge (Germany). Clarke beat Butcher to the first semi whilst Hegge beat Lukas Rohan (Czech Republic) in the second. In the final, Clarke’s typically powerful start was blunted by Hegge and it was Butcher who got the lead. He never looked back and Clarke would never get the chance to try and make the move. 

🥇Finn Butcher 🇳🇿

🥈Joseph Clarke 🇬🇧

🥉Noah Hegge 🇩🇪

Prediction analysis; 1 Medallist correct

I felt like Butcher would win in the final as he had looked so good in the lead-up and I mentioned him in my preview as my fourth-placed finisher. Hegge was more of a surprise. 

Women’s C-1

Gabriela Satkova (Czech Republic) led the heats despite picking up a penalty ahead of Jessica Fox (Australia) and Monica Doria Vilarrubla (Andorra).The same trio led the semi-final. Evy Leibfarth (United States) started the final and would take an early lead in the final. Elena Lilik (Germany) would go ahead by six seconds. Vilarrubla would have two penalties on the first two gates and a third came on gate seven. Fox would fly down the course and take an edge of four seconds herself. Satkova would take a penalty on the second gate but an upstream gate would cost her lots of time and she would miss out on the medals. 

🥇Jessica Fox 🇦🇺

🥈Elena Lilik 🇩🇪

🥉Evy Leibfarth 🇺🇸

Prediction analysis; 2 Medallist correct, 1 perfect prediction  

Fox was predictably dominant. Leibfarth was not someone I thought would get on the podium. 

Women’s K-1 

In the first run of the preliminaries, Camille Prigent (France) led despite missing a gate. The second run saw faster times for almost everyone with Jessica Fox (Australia) who led ahead of Klaudia Zwolinska (Poland). Conditions on the final day were challenging, but Ricarda Funk (Germany) topped the semi-final despite missing a gate, finishing ahead of Zwolinska and Kimberly Woods (Great Britain) whilst Fox only qualified in eighth. In the final, Eva Tercelj (Slovenia) tookan early lead despite a few mistakes. Fox would deliver a run of 96.08, the quickest time of the day so far. Prigent briefly held second until Ana Satila (Brazil) surpassed her. Woods kept pace with Fox at the first two split but faded late, finishing comfortably in second. Zwolinska was also quicker quicker than Fox at the first two checkpoints but in the final section could not keep the pace up and finished second. The final paddler was Funk, who also led at the first two checkpoints. Going into the final section she touched a pole before missing a gate, taking her out of contention. 

🥇Jessica Fox 🇦🇺

🥈Klaudia Zwolinska 🇵🇱

🥉Kimberly Woods 🇬🇧

Prediction analysis; 2 Medallist correct, 1 perfect prediction  

Again I thought it’d be a Fox win. Funk was in the position to make it a clean sweep but faltered last under the pressure. 

Women’s Kayak Cross

Camille Prigent (France) led the time trial ahead of Jessica Fox (Australia). Surprisingly, Fox was eliminated in the heats, while other big names such as Corinna Kuhnle (Austria), Eva Tercelj (Slovenia), Klaudia Zwolinska (Poland) and Tereza Fiserova (Czech Republic) also missed the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals were won by Elena Lilik (Germany), Noemie Fox (Australia), Kimberly Woods (Great Britain) and Angele Hug (France). In the first semi-final, Fox beat Lilik. The second saw Woods win, ahead of Huig. In the final, Woods led out of the gates, only for Fox to get in front at the upstream gate. Woods also found herself in trouble at the last upstream, dropping to fourth, but recovered to claim brone as Lilik missed a gate. Fox secured the win, completing a clean sweep of the slalom events for the family.

🥇Noemie Fox 🇦🇺

🥈Angele Hug 🇫🇷

🥉Kimberly Woods 🇬🇧

Prediction analysis; 1 Medallist correct, 1 perfect prediction  

This remains the hardest slalom event to predict. Neither Fox nor Hug were mentioned as real contenders.