The sport of Canoe Slalom was modelled after slalom skiing and the first competitions in the 1930s took place on flat water, but as the sport progressed it was moved over to white-water rapids. It was first introduced to the Olympic programme in the 1972 Munich games, but didn't become a permanent part of the Olympic programme before the 1992 Barcelona games. Athletes compete by negotiating either a Kayak or a Canoe down a 250m artificial white water course dropping 5.5m with 13.000 litre of water beinng pumped in every second and is if that's not enough the athletes also have to negotiate a maximum of 25 gates where red gates have to be passed upstream and green gates passed downstream. An athlete gets two runs in the qualification round that together decides if they move on in the competition to the semi-final and from there to the final, 2 penalty seconds are added for touching a gate while missing a gate incurs a 50 second penalty. The finals are run with a different set-up in the gates basically making it a whole new course. There are events using both canoes and kayaks, in canoe event the athletes kneel and use a single blade paddle while in kayaks they sit and use a double-bladed paddle. To win a race in Canoe Slalom an athlete has to have incredible upper body strength, control and precision.
There are four gold medals up for grabs in London, the Men compete in Canoe Singles (C1), Canoe Double (C2) and Kayak Single (K1) while the Women compete only in Kayak Single (K1), but in four years time in the 2016 Rio games the Women will also be competing in C1.
In the Women's K1 event the battle will be between Corinna Kuhnle (AUT) who has won the past two World Championships and Jana Dukatova (SVK) who got silver in the past two World Championships, but has won the past three World Cups. I think they will be out to see who is really the Queen of Canoe Slalom. In the Men's K1 event the favourite is Peter Kauzer (SLO) who had a phenomenal year last year winning both the World Championship and the World Cup, but he will se competition from athletes like Daniele Molmenti (ITA) and Mateusz Polaczyk (POL) who aren't far behind him.
The Men's C1 event is very open and every person that makes it to the final can end up winning, but my favourite to win is two-time Olympic gold medallist Tony Estanguet (FRA), but he will face strong competition from his fellow frenchman Denis Gargaut Chanut (FRA) who is the current World Champion. The clear-cut favourites to win the C2 events are brothers Pavol and Peter Hochschorner (SVK) who have 3 Olympic gold medal from the past three games, 5 World Championship gold medals (won the past 4) and 10 World Cup overall gold medals. If they don't win this event I will be very shocked indeed as they are in a league of their own and have shown that pressure doesn't get to them at all.
This event is extremely fun to watch and if you haven't seen it it has the same tension as slalom skiing where every little thing you do worng can cost you a medal. One lapse in concentration can have a favourite out before the finals even start. Be sure to catch at leat one of the finals in this event during the games.
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