What is Canoe Sprint?
Canoe sprint sees competitors race each other on a flatwater course over distances between 200 and 1000 metres.
There are two types of boats: canoes, where the athlete is strapped into the boat in a kneeling position using a single-blade paddle, and kayaks with the athletes seated and employing a double-bladed paddle.
The majority of races are between individuals plus there are also two-person canoe and four-person kayak classes in the Olympic Games.
By whom, where and when was Canoe Sprint invented?
Having studied the kayak - the Inuit word for "man boat" - British explorer and travel writer John MacGregor is credited with transforming the traditional hunting and fishing boats into sporting vessels and founded the Royal Canoe Club in 1866.
Canoe sprint, originally known as flatwater canoe, is the original and simplest form of the sport where an athlete wins by reaching the finish first.
What are the rules of Canoe Sprint?
Up to eight individual athletes (or crews) line up for a sprint canoe or sprint kayak race with each allocated lanes they must stay within.
And then, simply, they must reach the finish line as quickly as possible.
Canoe Sprint and the Olympics
Under its former name of flatwater canoeing, canoe sprint featured at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris as a demonstration sport. It became a full Olympic discipline for the first time at Berlin 1936.
There have been a number of changes to events over the years with women first competing at London 1948 but only in kayaks. It was not until Tokyo 2020 that women could race for medals in sprint canoes.
Race distances have been reduced over time to appeal more to audiences with Olympic races now taking place over 200m (only women C-1), 500m, and 1000m (only men C-1 and K-1).
At Paris 2024, there were 10 races in canoe sprint with five for each gender.
Best Sprint Canoeists to watch
Lisa Carrington has dominated women's sprint kayaking in recent years, completing a hat-trick of K-1 200m titles at Tokyo 2020 where she also won K-1 500m and K-2 500m gold (with Caitlin Regal). She is New Zealand's most successful Olympian in history.
Nevin Harrison of the United States was just 19 when she won the first women's C-1 200m title in Tokyo.
Hungary has long been a powerhouse nation in both women's and men's canoe sprint with Balint Kopasz the reigning world and Olympic K-1 1000m champion.
Germany and China are very much forces in the team races, while Brazil's Isaquias Quieroz took his medal tally to four in Tokyo including his nation's first canoeing gold in the C-1 1000m.
