It was an action packed weekend in Wausau, Wisconsin (USA) for the 2012 ICF Junior & U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships. The women’s canoe field continues to get stronger and deeper each year, demonstrating their readiness for Olympic inclusion - and a pipeline for the future. Olympic inclusion would mean funding and resources to dedicate to women canoeists around the world.

More National Federations are seeing the value and added benefit of including women’s canoe at the national level - and it shows. We thank them for this recognition and expansion of opportunities at the international and national levels. Unfortunately, many women canoeists are currently competing without consistent dedicated coaching - as seen with those in the Olympic program, and have little funding to afford to compete at all competitions available to them. Many athletes were not at this World Championships due to lack of funding. This is a common occurrence in both slalom and sprint and affects overall participation rates the ICF seeks to warrant Olympic inclusion. Additionally, many kayakers have indicated their interest in and preference for canoe, but compete in kayak because of Olympic opportunities. With an announcement of Olympic inclusion for women’s canoe for 2016, this would change. Rio 2016.

All results can be found on the 2012 Wausau Whitewater website http://www.2012wausau.com/

Photos courtesy of John Michael Thompson.