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Canoe Slalom is a kayaking and canoeing sport (once known as whitewater slalom) in which athletes use a kayak or canoe to navigate through a course that consists of hanging gates on river rapids. The objective of the sport is to complete the course in the fastest time possible.
![kayak slalom](../canoeing/images/kayak-slalom-pixa.jpg)
The gates used consist of one or two poles. The poles hang down from a wire that stretches across the river. There are a total of 18-25 gates used, of which 6 or 7 must be negotiated in an upstream direction. All gates are numbered, and the downstream gates are colored green and the upstream gates are colored red. Most courses take about 80-120 seconds to complete.
In competitions, each run through the course is timed. If a rider's paddle, boat, or their body touches any of the poles, a 2-second penalty is added to their time. If a rider misses a gate or clears the gate in the wrong order, a 50-second penalty is enforced. The rides with the fastest net time is declared the winner.
The sport is currently part of the Olympics, a singles medal event is conducted for both men and women, in canoe and kayak. There are also World Championship and World Cup events for the sport.
Similar Sports
- Extreme Canoe Slalom — a fast-paced kakayaking sport in which four athletes race each other on a whitewater course through up and downstream gates whilst also completing an eskimo roll.
- Wildwater Canoe — kayaks or canoes are used to negotiate a natural stretch of rapids on a river as fast as possible.
- Kayaking — boat races using a small, narrow boat propelled using a double-bladed paddle.
- Canoe Freestyle / Playboating — a whitewater sport in which athletes on kayaks or canoes perform various moves in a fixed place called the playspot.
- Canoeing — paddle sport in which the rider kneels or sits facing forward in a canoe.
- Rafting — the objective is to navigate downstream on river rapids using an inflated raft.
- Canoe Polo — like polo on water, the objective is to score by throwing or hitting a ball through a goal suspended two meters above the water.
Related Pages
- Kayaking at the Summer Olympics
- Basic Rules of Slalom Canoeing/Kayaking
- About Paddling Sports
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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