There was a U.S. Olympic Team selection event for flatwater sprint paddlers last weekend on Lake Lanier at Gainesville, Georgia. This weekend the slalom racers were on the water at Oklahoma City's new artificial whitewater venue for the second of their two selection events.
The International Olympic Committee has a pre-set number of athletes it will allow to compete in canoe and kayak events at Rio this summer. How those berths are distributed among nations is determined by how each nation performs in the previous year's world championships and in the championships for its continent or global region (i.e., Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Americas).
In flatwater, the U.S. athletes did not perform well enough at the 2015 world championships to secure any berths in the Rio Olympics. That means that any Olympic berths the U.S. gets will be determined at the Pan American Championships on May 19-20 at Lake Lanier. And so last weekend's trials on Lanier were a competition for the right to race in the Pan Ams. The following athletes won their classes last weekend and will now attempt to qualify for spots in the Olympics later this month:
Men's 1000-meter single canoe: Ian Ross, Bethesda, Maryland
Men's 1000-meter double canoe: Ian Ross, Bethesda, Maryland, and Gavin Ross, Bethesda, Maryland
Men's 200-meter single canoe: Ben Hefner, Gainesville, Georgia
Women's 500-meter double canoe (non-Olympic event): Lydia Keefe Sampson, Seattle, Washington, and Azusa Murphy, Seattle, Washington
Women's 500-meter double kayak: Farran Smith and Samantha Barlow, San Diego, California
Women's 500-meter single kayak: Maggie Hogan, Huntington Beach, California
Men's 1000-meter single kayak: Chris Miller, Gainesville, Georgia
Men's 1000-meter double kayak: Chris Miller, Gainesville, Georgia, and Stanton Collins, Gainesville, Georgia
Men's 200-meter double kayak: Chris Miller, Gainesville, Georgia, and Stanton Collins, Gainesville, Georgia
Women's 500-meter single canoe (non-Olympic event): Lydia Keefe Sampson, Seattle, Washington
Women's 200-meter single para-kayak: Anja Pierce, Pittsford, New York
Men's 200-meter single para-kayak: Nik Miller, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Men's 200-meter single kayak: Tim Hornsby, Atlanta, Georgia
Women's 200-meter single kayak: Emily Wright, Fairport, New York
Tim Hornsby, who competed in 200-meter single kayak at the 2012 London Games, is the only member of this group who has previous Olympic experience.
In slalom, meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Team is now complete. Well, almost.
The U.S. secured Olympic berths in men's kayak and men's single canoe at the 2015 world championships, by virtue of Michal Smolen's third-place finish in K1 and Casey Eichfeld's fourth-place finish in C1. Smolen and Eichfeld did not actually win the right to fill those berths in Rio at last year's worlds, but they did earn a points advantage over other U.S. athletes, and they closed the deal at the selection event at Charlotte last month.
In the other two slalom classes, women's kayak and men's double canoe, no athletes finished racing at Charlotte with an insurmountable point total for Olympic selection, and so competition continued in those classes this weekend at Oklahoma City.
Ashley Nee of Darnestown, Maryland, who had earned a K1W Olympic berth for the U.S. at the Pan American Championships at Minden, Ontario, last summer, won at Charlotte for an edge in points coming into Oklahoma City. Dana Mann took the win this weekend, pulling into a tie with Nee in points, but Nee has been named to the Olympic Team because she was the one who qualified the spot at the Pan Ams.
In men's double canoe, the team of Casey Eichfeld and Devin McEwan beat out Michal Smolen and Zach Lokken this weekend. Coupled with their win at Charlotte last month, this victory earned them the U.S. Olympic nomination in C2.
Now, this is where I still don't understand what's going on. As I mentioned in this post several weeks ago, the U.S. has qualified to enter four warm bodies in whitewater slalom at the Games. What the U.S. would like to do is simply enter the four boats that have emerged from its selection process, given that Casey Eichfeld is in both the winning C1 and the winning C2; but apparently the ICF hasn't made up its mind yet if that's an acceptable way for a nation to use its berths.
How did it even happen that the U.S. has only four qualified athlete berths? Eichfeld/McEwan won the C2 class at the Pan Ams last summer, so why didn't that qualify an entire boat for the U.S.? Was it because Casey Eichfeld had already qualified the C1 berth for the U.S.? If so, why shouldn't his status as a U.S. Olympic nomination in both C1 and C2 be reason enough for the U.S. to send boats in all four classes?
I've pored over the USA Canoe-Kayak website but have not found an answer there. All I know is that according to this article, there's a chance that either Ashley Nee or Devin McEwan will end up staying home this summer. I sure hope it doesn't happen that way.
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