The canoe is an ancient boat with origins where travels on inland waters and the open sea were necessary for hunting, fishing and general transport. The canoe came in a number of forms including the dugout, the bark-covered and the skin-covered. The Eskimos were the pioneers of the skin-covered canoes.

The Scot, John MacGregor, is the father of canoeing as a sport in the 1860s in England.  MacGregor called the kayak that he designed and built the “Rob Roy”. The Canoe Club was formed in 1866 and the initial regatta was conducted before the decade had closed. In 1873, The Canoe Club became the Royal Canoe Club but not before Edward, Prince of Wales became the Commodore (in 1867). Edward remained as Commodore until 1901 when he became King Edward VII. When Britons, particularly students, travelled abroad, they introduced the sport to the countries on the Continent and in North America.

The advent of a lightweight folding canoe in Germany in the early 1900s gave the sport considerable impetus, particularly among the countries in Northern Europe.

The sport of canoe / kayak was a demonstration sport at Paris 1924. It was also in 1924 that the International Canoe Federation was formed. Flat-water canoeing made its debut as a full Olympic sport in Berlin in 1936. Women paddlers first competed at London 1948.

Slalom events which are held on whitewater first appeared in Munich in 1972 and then promptly disappeared for another twenty years, until Barcelona 1992, where it was held on a specially built artificial course. It has been on the program ever since and continues to be one of the spectacles of the Games.

Athens 2004 saw the remarkable Birgit Fischer from Germany (originally East Germany) win her eleventh and twelfth Olympic medals in canoeing – eight have been gold. Her twelve medals is a record for a canoeist. Fischer first competed at Moscow 1980 and is the only female Olympian in any sport to win medals 24 years apart and a gold medal at each of six Olympic Games. She missed competing at Los Angeles 1984, when arguably she was at the peak of her form, because of the USSR-led boycott which resulted in East Germany not sending a team.

There are two different types of craft: canoes and kayaks. The key differences are the position of the paddler, the type of paddle used and the style of boat.

Canoes are paddled from a kneeling position with a single bladed paddle. Also known as Canadian canoes, the craft carry one (C1) or two (C2) athletes and the events are open to men only. Sprint racing canoes are open-deck craft; slalom canoes are closed.

Kayaks are closed and paddled from a sitting position. In sprint racing they are controlled by a mechanism controlled by the feet. The paddle has a blade at both ends. Slalom kayaks have a single paddler; sprint kayaks have one (K1), two (K2) or four (K4) paddlers. Kayaks are raced by men and women.

Australia first competed in canoeing in Melbourne in 1956 and Dennis Green and Wally Brown won a bronze medal in the now discontinued 10,000m kayak pairs (K2) event.  Green ultimately competed in five Olympics and carried the Australian flag in the Opening Ceremony at Munich 1972. The second Australian canoeing medal came in Moscow 1980 when John Sumegi finished second in the K1 500m. He also finished a close fourth in the 1000m. The canoeing events in Moscow were affected by the American-led boycott of those Olympics with only four of the 33 medals on offer going to countries from outside the Eastern Bloc. 

Australia’s first gold medal in the sport almost went to Grant Davies in the K1 1000m at Seoul 1988. Initially it was thought that Davies had won the event and he even signed to collect the gold medal. On closer inspection of the finish, the officials reversed the initial result, giving the gold medal to Greg Barton of the Untied States by a victory margin of .005 seconds. Davies was gracious in accepting the result when he said words to the effect, "If that's the worst thing that will happen to me in my life, then I won’t be too badly off".

Clint Robinson broke through for Australia’s first, and so far only, gold medal when he won the K1 1000m at Barcelona 1992. With a bronze medal in the K1 1000m at Atlanta 1996 and a silver medal, with Nathan Baggaley, in the K2 500m in Athens in 2004 Robinson is Australia's most-decorated Olympic paddler.

Australia’s white-water slalom canoeists first competed in Barcelona and Danielle Woodward won the silver medal in the women’s K1 event. Robin Bell went very close to the dais at Athens 2004 when he placed 4^th in the C1 slalom. Bell became Australia's first world champion when he won the C1 event at the 2005 World Championships in Penrith, Sydney.

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