Well, what all can I say about my weekend at the slalom world championships? All kinds of things come to mind.
The worlds were actually a four-day event. Qualification rounds took place on Thursday and Friday. Arriving on Saturday morning, I got to watch the semifinal and final rounds and team races for each of the five classes (men's and women's single canoe, men's and women's kayak, and men's double canoe). I'm actually glad I wasn't there all four days, because being a spectator at a slalom race is surprisingly exhausting. Saturday was very sunny and I got a bit of sunburn, and on Sunday it was quite breezy with a couple of heavy showers, and that was a drain on my energy. And of course I spent much of each day on my feet, wandering up and down the course.
The sport has changed fairly dramatically since I was racing. It might not be obvious to the person whose exposure to the sport is confined to watching the Olympics on TV every four years, but to anybody who has participated, the differences are glaring. One of the biggest is the length of the boats: four meters had always been the minimum for C1s and K1s until 2005, when the International Canoe Federation reduced it to three and a half meters. It's a good thing the boats are shorter, because the courses have become much tighter. In a typical race run today, there are few moments when the paddler is not pivoting his boat or working his edges. And world class races are held almost exclusively on artificial whitewater courses rather than natural rivers. This gives the race organizers maximum control over water flow; it makes it possible to hold elite-caliber events in Olympic cities that have no whitewater rivers nearby; and it's more televisable. Personally I prefer a natural river, but it seems I don't often get my way in these modern times.
The individual world champions for 2014 are as follows: men's single canoe: Fabien Lefevre, United States; men's double canoe: Luka Bozic and Saso Taljat, Slovenia; ladies' kayak: Jessica Fox, Australia; men's kayak: Boris Neveu, France; ladies' single canoe: Jessica Fox, Australia. But impressing me more than anybody else was the Czech Republic's Štěpánka Hilgertová. Why? Because she is 47 years old, just like me. I've mentioned in recent posts how my back ailments are making feel more mortal than ever, and it was inspiring to see Hilgertová sailing into the finals alongside women less than half her age. I believe Hilgertová's first world championships was the 1989 edition on Maryland's Savage River; since then she has won two world championships and two Olympic gold medals. This weekend, she finished about two and a half seconds out of the medals in fourth place.
Quite a few former U.S. team members showed up to see the worlds take place in their country for only the second time. The ones I saw included Davey Hearn, Bill Hearn, Jennifer Hearn, John Sweet, Jon Lugbill, Ron Lugbill, Bill Endicott, Scott Shipley, Adam Clawson, Rebecca Giddens, Eric Giddens, Lecky Haller, Boo Turner, Jason Beakes, Scott Strausbaugh, Dana Chladek, Brett Heyl, Aleta McCleskey, Joe Jacobi, Kent Ford, Matt Taylor, Kara Weld, Sam Davis, and Norm Bellingham (he was actually on the national team in flatwater, but he started out in slalom). There were probably a few others I either didn't see or am just forgetting. And then there were quite a few former racers like me, who weren't good enough to make the national team but still love being around the sport.
Whew... time to decompress. I am spending much of this week in the town of Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, some 30 miles north of Deep Creek. I am camping in Ohiopyle State Park, and I plan to do some paddling on the Class III lower Youghiogheny River, making sure I still have a modicum of whitewater skill before I join a couple of friends to take on the Class IV-V upper Youghiogheny and upper Gauley Rivers this weekend.
Right this minute I am sitting outside a raft company building, using their wi-fi signal to catch up on this blog and respond to some e-mails and do a few other Internet-related things. Later today I hope to do a round of my rehab exercises, which I've neglected since leaving home. I may or may not try to get on the river today--it's turned chilly today and I'll have to see how my back is feeling. The rest of the week is supposed to be warmer.
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