Top: The fate of the Worlds rests in their hands… PHOTO: MICHAEL NEUMANN
Above: Athlete funding. PHOTO: MICHAEL NEUMANN
Main: Junior juggernaut Dane Jackson (USA) was unstoppable in his division, winning gold in squirt, canoe (C1) and kayak (K1), and bronze in open canoe (OC1). The first ever competitor in all four freestyle disciplines, the 17-year-old’s semifinal K1 score of 1,100 points could have nabbed gold in the senior men’s division. Spain’s Joaquim Fontane overcame shaky first and second rides with a 773-point final ride for K1 silver, with Britain’s Bren Orton close on
his heels for bronze. PHOTO: MICHAEL NEUMANN
32 RAPID SPRING 2012
top-level athlete-boaters than ever before and the Europeans are applying their mastery of training for Olympic slalom to freestyle. As a result, O’Hara, her Team Great Britain colleague and men’s K1 winner James Beb-
bington, Slovakian silver medalist Peter Csonka and a handful of others from across the pond are staking key real estate on ICF freestyle medal podiums. The field of paddlers is growing deeper, tricks are becoming more refined and the gender gap
between men’s and women’s categories is shrinking by the year. The question now is, can the rogue, free-form boaters from North America keep up with the precise, finely tuned Euros?
• • •
Like competitive snowboarders, world-class freestyle kayakers have an identity crisis. On one hand, they’re boaters: The progression of their craft is bereft of rules and training is more about playing on the river than anything else; they meet their friends on the river to goof off, invent new moves and challenge each other. But on the other hand, they’re athletes, supremely dedicated to the sport and achieving feats of strength, agility and mental focus that few people can attain. The best example of the freestyle dichotomy may be four-time World Champ Eric Jack-
son, the competitive paddling iron man who has been participating in international freestyle events since 1993. With a background in slalom, EJ brought the disciplined and technical
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