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COMMON MYTHS AND FACTS REGARDING
WOMEN’S
PARTICIPATION IN SPRINT CANOEING
Myth:
There are not enough women canoeing for it to be included in the Olympic
Summer Games.
Fact:
Currently, there are approximately 500 women from at least 21 countries around the world paddling in canoe at either the National or local/club level. 7 countries have included women’s canoe as official or exhibition events at their National Championships: Canada, USA, Brazil, Spain, France, Poland and Russia. An additional 14 countries have women training in canoes at various skill levels and plan to include Women’s canoe at the national level in the near future: Ecuador, Finland, Great Britain, Hungary, China, Vietnam, Serbia, Guam, Togo, Senegal, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Moldova. South Africa and Tahiti have expressed interest in building a women's canoe program, as are other countries.
Too many countries still force women to race against the men at the national level
because National Federations and even Local Clubs refuse to offer women-only events
across the board. Federations and Clubs demand interest (i.e., a large number of
paddlers) before they offer events – knowing that more interest will not be revealed
without events.
"If women's canoe were an Olympic event, you'd see a lot of other countries jump on
board," says Jeff Houser, Atlantic Regional High Performance coach for Canoe Kayak
Canada
. " But with so many countries tied to their Olympic funding in terms of what they
can do in development, they just can't afford to add [women’s] canoe."
Once the International Canoe Federation and CanoeKayak
Canada
announced a Pre-Worlds Development Camp for women’s canoe – funded by the ICF and Canoe ’09
and announced exhibition events for women at the World Championships, we saw an exponential increase
in the number of countries indicating interest and/or starting women’s canoe programs to train
for the World Championships.
Where there is a will – there is a way.
Myth:
Women in canoe have not competed in enough high level/international competitions.
Fact:
SPRINT: Women’s Canoe was held as exhibition in the 2003 World Championships
(
Atlanta,
GA,
USA) and was included again as exhibition at the 2009 World
Championships (
Dartmouth,
Nova Scotia,
Canada). Eleven countries were represented at the Worlds, from 4 continents (all except Africa)
.
Six countries, and 16
canoeists and one coach participated in the Pre-Worlds
Women’s Canoe Development Camp, sponsored by the ICF, CanoeKayak
Canada, and
Canoe ’09. The Pan American Championships included women’s canoe since
2001 as exhibition and in 2009, womens canoe was a full medal event, earning points for their respective countries.
In 2001, World Cup #1 (held in
Gainesville,
Georgia,
USA) included women’s
canoe as exhibition. The Lake Placid International Regatta (
New York,
USA) continues to feature highly
competitive women’s canoe races in all categories (C1, C2, and C4).
SLALOM: The 2008 Canoe Slalom Pre-Worlds event in Seu, Spain included C1W as exhibition for the first time ever. C1W was included as exhibition at the 2009 World Championships. Additionally, in 2009, all three World Cups included C1W as full medal events and the ICF included C1W in the official ICF Rankings.
In December 2009, the ICF will make its final vote on the inclusion of womens canoe in the 2010 World Championships programs for both Sprint and Slalom.
Myth: The quality of competition and womens skill level is not high enough to warrant inclusion.
Fact: E-quality = Quality. You cannot get Quality without Equality.
Myth:
There are not enough young girls competing in sprint canoe globally.
Fact:
We have found there are more teenagers paddling canoe or interested in canoe,
world-wide, than “adult” paddlers (over 18) - in all canoeing disciplines, at the elite and recreational levels. Most countries we are aware of have primarily
younger paddlers and many of them must race against the boys/men because of lack of
opportunities for racing, coaching and resources. Many times this latter circumstances discourages participation completely.
The International Canoe Federation’s decision in late 2007 to not include women’s canoe
in the 2010 Youth Olympics (YO) was disappointing given current data, and given that the IOC included womens ski jumping in the Winter Youth Olympics.
While this decision cannot be reversed, we do see great hope given the success of the
exhibition events at the 2009 Senior World Championships and the Pre-Worlds Development
Camps.
Myth:
Women only recently started paddling canoes – Olympic style – in flatwater.
Fact:
Paddling in canoes has been a method of transportation, a means of gathering
food, recreational outlet, and a part of survival for women and their families for centuries.
We have documentation of women doing “high kneel” canoeing dating back to the early
1900s, and women have been paddling in slalom canoes in whitewater since the 1950’s.
For Sprint,
Canada
continues to lead the way as a National Federation, providing women only events
since 1995 at the National Championships and encouraging the growth and development
of women nation-wide.
Brazil followed suit in 2000,
USA in 2002. France has included womens canoe at its national championships since 2007. We expect other
National Federations to change their by-laws to offer women-only events as “official”
events, and eliminate the need for a girl to demonstrate her skills in the same races as the
men.
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