Canada central in canoe, kayak history

[STORYMENU]

Story Contents

• From voyageurs to canoe spotters
• Canadians make a splash
• Whitewater races added to Olympics
• Top Canadian paddlers

[/STORYMENU]

For centuries, canoes and kayaks have been used worldwide for hunting, fishing, transportation and battle – and Canada has a rich history in this area.  

The history of this country includes everything from Haida dugout canoes to Inuit sealskin kayaks and the birch-bark canoes used by the French-Canadian voyageurs to open commercial routes for the fur trade. 

Canada also takes credit for the world's first known canoe factory, which began operations at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, around 1750. Today, the sprint canoes used at the Olympics are also called "Canadian" canoes after the country that first made them.

From voyageurs to canoe spotters

Canada's voyageurs sometimes raced their boats, much to the delight of local bettors and bookies. This is when canoeing and kayaking emerged as a recreational pastime.  

By the middle of the 19th century, as industrialization around the world gave rise to the concept of leisure time, there was a marked increase in the use of canoes and kayaks for pleasure. 

One legendary canoeist was British lawyer John MacGregor, who navigated the lakes and rivers of Europe in 1865 in his own version of a kayak. He named his boat the "Rob Roy." A modern version of his boat is still popular today. 

Europeans gathered on the banks of various waterways to watch him pass, and accounts of his travels were carried in newspapers as far away as the United States.  MacGregor wrote a series of books recounting his adventures.  

As a canoeing craze took shape, Canada and the U.S. formed their own national associations at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1924, delegates from several countries met in Denmark to establish the first international association aimed at harmonizing the rules of the sport.

Canadians make a splash

That same year, canoeing and kayaking debuted at the Paris Olympic Games as a demonstration sport, with flatwater races in singles, doubles and fours. Canada made an auspicious debut, winning all the canoeing, or single-blade events, while the U.S. won all the races in kayak, or double-blades. 

At the time, all the boats were referred to as canoes and distinguished only by the number of blades on their paddles (one or two) because officials reasoned that a kayak is a canoe, but a canoe is not a kayak. The International Canoe Federation finally settled on boat standards 10 years later. 

The Germans, who were enthusiastic canoeists and kayakers, successfully lobbied to get flatwater racing into the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Twenty canoe federations were represented in nine events, whose immense popularity sparked general interest in the sport. Membership in the 23 national associations tripled in the wake of the Games. 

Public participation ground to a halt during the Second World War, but resumed afterwards without a hitch. Sprint racing has been contested in every Olympics since 1948.

Whitewater races added to Olympics

Slalom, or whitewater, canoeing was first introduced at the 1972 Games in Munich. But the next group of Olympic organizers complained that finding natural venues for slalom events was too difficult, and constructing artificial rivers too costly. The slalom event was reluctantly mothballed until the Barcelona Games in 1992 and has been contested at every Olympics since then. Canada has yet to win a medal in slalom. 

Over the years, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Romania and the Czech Republic have produced the lion's share of medals in sprint canoeing and kayaking. Scandinavian countries have also done extremely well in the K-1 events, especially from the post-war years until the 1970s. 

Germany and the Czech Republic have also excelled in whitewater during the short Olympic history of that sport. 

The single most successful kayaker of all time, however, remains Sweden's Gert Fredriksson, who won five gold medals, a silver and a bronze over four Olympics, from 1948 to 1960. He won two of his gold medals in the now-defunct 10,000-metre race, a gruelling event that took competitors about 48 minutes to complete.

Top Canadian paddlers

For a country blessed with more lakes and rivers per capita than any other, Canada has been an under-achiever in Olympic canoeing and kayaking. The two most resounding successes were the 1936 Berlin Games and the 1984 Los Angeles Games. 

In Berlin, Francis Amyot paddled to gold in the C1-1000 as part of the team's three-medal performance. 

Canada won medals in six flatwater events in Los Angeles, with Larry Cain winning gold in the C-1 500 and silver in the C-1 1,000.  

Two Canadians have made their mark in recent years. Carolyn Brunet has won three Olympic medals, including two silver and one bronze, in flatwater racing over the past three Summer Games.   

Adam Van Koeverden claimed two medals, a gold and a bronze, in flatwater racing at the Athens Games.