Geeks on Sports: London Olympics 2012 – Canoe Slalom

Event Dates: Saturday July 29 – Thursday August 2

Medal Events: 4

Athletes: 82

 

 

Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith here today to tell you all about – Canoe Slalom, a sport that makes sitting upright difficult.

 

Lee Valley White Water Course

 

The slalom competition in the London Olympics will take place at the manmade Lee Valley White Water Centre.  There’s something strange to me about an implied “white water” experience being done at a manmade structure.  It’s certainly understandable, given the limited locale of true white water rapids and the inherent remoteness of them, but regardless…I disapprove!

 

 

Canoe Slalom as a sport started on September 11, 1932 in Switzerland (where else would people strap themselves into a small wooden box with a paddle through rapids) and became a permanent Olympic sport in Barcelona twenty years ago.

 

The premise of the sport is very similar to skiing slalom wherein competitors will race through a timed course which has twenty five “gates” (which are really just a pole) that participants must maneuver around.  Time means everything in this sport so the penalties are stiff: two seconds for touching a gate, fifty seconds for missing a gate.

Racing Competitor

During the Canoe Slalom events at the London Olympics there are two disciplines on display: canoe and kayak.  The basic difference is that canoe riders use single bladed paddles to maneuver the course and kayak racers use double bladed paddles.

 

Watching this sport should be akin to watching skiing or luge with plenty of quick camera cuts from section to section of the course.  I would definitely appreciate an overhead track camera following the racers through the entire track; that would be very cool.

 

To see where to watch this or your other favorite sports, check out NBC’s coverage in your local area.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this preview of the 2012 London Olympics Canoe Slalom event.  Continue to check 8DaysAGeek for more previews of Olympic events.

 

 

This is Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith signing off.

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One Comment

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