This essay originally appeared in Canoeroots and Family Camping magazine.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in all the Olympic fanfare and it’s impossible to miss Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt but you probably don’t know any sprint canoeing heroes. Relative to the deeply entrenched canoeing culture in North America, top-level racing has a weak following.
With marathons, outriggers, war canoes, even dragon boating, there’s no shortage of competitive spirit amongst recreational single-blade paddlers in North America. This has not, however, been translating into more and better athletes canoeing at an Olympic level.
Pam Boeteler is the president of WomenCAN International, a collective focused on gender equality in canoeing at the Olympics—an issue that she suggests is partly behind the waning interest in elite canoeing events. “There are no women’s open canoeing events at the Olympics,” says Boeteler. This despite the fact that 36 countries have established programs for women at various stages of development.
“On top of that, nobody just goes out and high-kneels recreationally,” Boeteler points out, referring to the trickier stance that elite sprint canoeists use to gain power. “We have a population who want instant gratification and don’t necessarily have the time to learn an entirely new skill.”
Paddling, unlike most elite sports in North America, doesn’t have a recreational stream to draw from.
“I started looking at the industry as a whole and over time there was this disconnect between recreational and elite paddlers,” says Wade Blackwood, executive director of the American Canoe Association. “When the ACA and USA Canoe/Kayak (USACK) split in the ‘90s, performance dropped off, medal counts dropped off and participation at the elite level dropped off.”
As a result, the ACA is once again working together with USACK—the national governing body for paddlesports racing and a member of the national Olympic committee—in an effort to reduce the obvious disparity.
The ACA has 5,700 instructors and Blackwood hopes that by introducing the idea of competitive canoeing into beginner courses, people will become aware that they can get involved in elite paddling disciplines.
In the end, both Blackwood and Boeteler agree that increased exposure and support for local competition are the keys to bridging the gap between recreational and elite paddlers. Extending the canoeing culture leisure paddlers love into the competitive sphere is healthy for both camps.
This article originally appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Fall 2012. Download our freeiPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
