Neither U.S. entrant was on the short list of expected medal contenders, but both were highly capable of capitalizing should the favorites falter in the watered-down Olympic field.
Ashley Nee put down a respectable semifinal run but was a bit off the pace even without her three gate-touch penalties. Her 14th-place finish was not good enough to make the final. She's already saying on Face Book that she's ready to sign up for another four years. The ten women who did move through got to do one more run, and here is how it turned out:
Maialen Chourraut has been among the elite women in the world for at least the last half-dozen years. An Olympic medal eluded her in 2012, and then she took some time off to give birth to a child. Clearly she has returned to top form. Meanwhile, the fact that two of the three medalists are non-European gets my attention. While I don't expect the Europeans are going anywhere, I hope this result will be a boost to slalom racing in distant parts of the world.
The C2 final consisted mostly of traditional powers, with Devin McEwan and Casey Eichfeld the only non-European pair to crash the party. They had squeaked into the final by taking tenth place in the semifinal, and were unable to improve that position in the final. Here are the final results:
It was a repeat performance for the British team of David Florence and Richard Hounslow: they took second in London four years ago. Florence was second in C1 in the 2008 Beijing Games, so the man now owns three Olympic silver medals.
This was, sadly, the last time C2s will race at the Olympics, as the class will be replaced with women's single canoe in Tokyo four years hence. I'm a hundred percent in favor of greater gender equality in our sport, but I'm sorry it has to come at the expense of such a magnificent boat class.
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