This weekend's World Cup race in Prague is the first leg of the 2015 World Cup tour. But it is also going to be one of a diminishing number of chances for canoe slalom fans to watch the world's best C2 athletes duelling out on the whitewater. This is because, after Rio 2016, C2 will no longer be an Olympic event. This will, in my opinion, precipitate either a rapid demise of C2 on the international circuit, or a slow death as C2 'dies on the vine'. Both scenarios will come about as the class is starved of funding from national governing bodies, because there is no case for funding a discipline that cannot return Olympic metalwork. This wouldn't be the fault of the NGBs, it is just the reality of sport funding.
So before I get ahead of myself, I'll explain a little bit about my understanding of what's going on. It may not be 100% accurate, but I think the long and short of it is. It's fair to say that there is still quite a lot of uncertainty surrounding this issue, as truly 'official' statements have not yet been made.
Essentially, to ensure canoe slalom's continued presence within the Olympic programme, we must, as a sport, commit to gender equity. This means aspiring to having equal numbers of male and female competitors, which in turn suggests that we should have equal number of men and women's medals. At the moment, there are three Olympic titles available to men and only one to women. The International Canoe Federation have therefore decided to even things up, and that means taking C2 out of the programme and adding C1W in. The rules of the Olympics mean that we cannot just create new medals (otherwise we could have the Olympic backwards-blindfolded title, as well as the backwards-blindfolded-novelty sunglasses title, which I don't think people would like to watch!). So the swap is what we have.
I am completely behind gender equity, having more women taking part and enjoying canoe slalom would be brilliant, but I'd also love more of everyone to love and participate in canoe slalom. Being in the Olympics, creating the 'shop window' for our sport and all other paddlesports is totally invaluable. With this status comes a price, we must 'toe the line' and dance to the drumbeat of the International Olympic Committee. As a sport we can never afford to take our Olympic status for granted, and we can never be complacent about it. So striving for gender equity is not only right, it is fundamentally necessary.
I just don't quite know how we have gotten to this situation. C2 is a most excellent class. Fans love C2. C2 paddlers love C2. TV loves C2. C2 is boss. Some people argue that C1W is not yet ready to 'go Olympic' and is unworthy of replacing C2. I completely disagree, athletes like Jess Fox, Kim Woods and Mallory Franklin may yet rise to be household names, and in some cases they already are. They are excellent athletes. It just saddens me that we are in an 'one or the other' scenario.
The next problem is that is we keep C2 and add C1W, we will not be gender equal. It is probably true that most countries haven't got enough women canoeists on the books to be able to field many C2W crews, so perhaps things could never be equal. So all in all, it looks pretty bad for C2. As I alluded to above, I would rather canoe slalom stayed in the Olympics without C2, than was forced out of the programme yet retained C2. But I just can't believe we are here.
So what can we do? It might all be decided already, and there may be no way to stop this from happening, but I think it is right to shout a bit. Surely there may be some way of keeping C2 and not bringing down the ire of the IOC? I want to save C2. So far, there is a 'Save C2' Facebook page, I assume that if it gets a zillion likes, it might be good for something. Next, I don't know what, but we have to try! Thanks for reading.
In the meantime, keep an eye on our Facebook page for news about this weekend's race, Prague always delivers some sparkly racing (in C2, kayak and canoe)! Thanks for reading :-)
