In my country the sport of whitewater slalom had its heyday in the 1980s, when the U.S. team won a big pile of world championships medals in men's single canoe (C1), men's double canoe (C2), and women's kayak (K1W).
Since then the U.S. has had some international success here and there, but nothing like in those glory days. Meanwhile, participation has plummeted at domestic events. When I raced C1 in the 1990s, my boat class typically had 20 to 25 entrants at the national team trials; I understand that was down from the numbers of the 1970s and 80s, and in the decades since there have sometimes been fewer than ten C1s racing at the trials.
As far as international success goes, in recent years the U.S. team hasn't had any dominant athletes like it did in the 80s, but it typically has had one or two people capable of finishing on the podium at the biggest races.
Right now that person appears to be Evy Liebfarth (whose father Lee was a K1 racer back when I was racing). This past weekend, at the Under-23 world championships at Krakow, Poland, Evy claimed the gold medal in K1W and the bronze medal in C1W. The not-very-good photo above is a screen-grab from the video of her winning K1W run.
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