Sprint Canoeing and Kayaking at the Olympics
Canoe and Kayak races at the Olympic Games are held on flat water with competitors assigned to lanes. There are single, double and four boats. The kayak boats on the program are identified by the letter “K” while the canoes are prefixed by a “C”, with the following number indicating the number of paddlers.
Olympic flat water kayaking Below is a list of all the events that are currently on the Olympic program. Sprint paddling events have been contested since 1936.
Sprint Paddling at the 2024 Paris Games
The men's C-2 and K-2 1000 meters have been replaced with shorter events, the men's C-2 and K-2 500 meters (so they are the same as the women's events). Also the men's and women's K-1 200m events have been removed (to make way for the new men's and women's slalom kayak cross events).
The kayak boats are identified by the letter “K” while the canoes are prefixed by a “C”, with the following number indicating the number of paddlers.
Men's C-1 1000 m
Men's C-2 500m
Men's K-1 1000 m
Men's K-2 500m
Men's K-4 500 m
Women's C-1 200 m
Women's C-2 500 m
Women's K-1 500 m
Women's K-2 500 m
Women's K-4 500 m
Sprint Paddling at the 2021 Tokyo Games
Since the previous Games, there were changes to the sprint canoe and kayak program to create equal number of events for men and women, the move part of the Olympics' move towards gender equality.
Related Pages
- Canoe and Kayak at the Olympic Games
- List of Olympic Sports
- See more on the Greatest Paddlers at the Olympics.
- More about the sports of Canoeing and Kayaking
- About sprint kayak and sprint canoe sports.
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