Win at the Worlds, continued from page 33 On the Ottawa, O’Hara learned that
“freestyle was quickly becoming professional, an athlete’s game,” she says. “The gap from the top of the pack to the bottom was im- pressive and the standard of the top paddlers was insane.” So she started taking things more seri-
ously, working as an instructor and sports coordinator at a British college to fund her other “job”—training to be the world’s best freestyle kayaker. She paddles on the river and in the pool under the tutelage of British coach Den- nis Newton as part of a highly structured, four-year development program, which also includes working out with specialists in the gym and meeting with nutritionists, psychologists and physiotherapists. In short, “everything I do has a focus, an outcome, a goal,” says O’Hara. “My progression has been unbelievable.” As it happens, Britain is proving to be “a
perfect breeding ground for kayaking,” says Bebbington, a 23-year-old video boater and product of the whitewater training facility in Nottingham. A paddlesports scene deeply rooted in slalom has expanded seamlessly to freestyle, with clubs and training centers of- fering up-and-coming athletes like O’Hara and Bebbington well-structured and techni- cal support. Compare this to the free-form approach of the Americans and it’s easy to see why the Brits cleaned up in Plattling. Two years into her training plan, O’Hara
entered the 2011 World Championships as an underdog. On the wave, she surprised everyone by routinely nailing difficult sequences involving felixes, loops, space Godzillas, lunar orbits and mcnastys—high- scoring aerial tricks that were unheard of in women’s playboating only a few years ago— and had the mental fortitude to keep it up through multiple rounds of competition. At the end, she pumped her fists and climbed past Emily Jackson to the top of the podium. Time will tell if O’Hara, Bebbington and
Csonka can once again beat out America’s best at the 2013 World Championships on North Carolina’s Nantahala River. It’s hard to predict the outcome of home-turf advan- tage—the last time the Worlds were hosted on U.S. waters was 1993, when EJ was vying for his first World Championship title and the event was considered the birth of com- petitive freestyle as we know it today.
• • •
Becoming the world’s best freestyle kayaker still takes Whiting’s willingness to put the rest
of your life on hold and Kincaid’s commit- ment to spending day after day on the river. Only now, with the talent pool swelling and a new cohort of youthful paddlers nipping on the veterans’ heels, it’s harder than ever. It’s telling that the ride put up by 17-year- old Dane Jackson in the junior semi- finals at the 2011 Worlds would’ve been enough to win the men’s division. What’s more, Eric Jackson says he could list off 20 names capable of making the top-five final round of an international freestyle event. “I think that what the top paddlers did
five years ago with regards to training and preparation has not changed,” says Kincaid. “The system is the same, but more people are now training in a smarter and more specific way.” Winning today means “knowing the
CR-MP
moves really well, being super consistent, being able to go fast and huge, and linking things together on demand,” says EJ. Beb- bington attributes his victory in Plattling to focusing on the mental side of competition and being able to perform when it matters. In short, today’s freestyle paddlers are equal parts boaters and athletes who make the sport their full-time job, set goals and train hard to achieve them. All this begs the question, where does
freestyle go from here? Seven years ago, at an anticlimactic
Worlds in Penrith, Australia, the Interna- tional Freestyle Committee planted the seed of an Olympic dream. They tweaked the scoring system, launched an off-year World Cup series and handed over white- water freestyle to the International Olympic Committee-recognized ICF. Wannabe Olympians looked forward to freestyle as a demonstration event as early as 2012. And now, with solid competitors from all
over the world and an increasingly tried and true scoring system, the Summer Games seems like a logical next step. While freestyle paddlers won’t share space at the new Lee Valley White Water Centre with slalom boaters this summer in London, the sport’s future appears secure in the hands of an impressive crop of junior paddlers. EJ thinks the move to the Olympics is inevitable. For her part, O’Hara just wants more
recognition and more financial support for what goes into grooming a champion. “I define myself as a freestyle kayaker,” she says. “I would like to see it become fully professional.” Conor Mihell is an award-winning freelance
writer. He reported on the state of feestyle in Rapid Summer/Fall 2009 (www.rapidmag. com/0045).
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