Two canoe/kayak slalom athletes named to Team Canada for Paris 2024 Olympics
Alex Baldoni and Lois Betteridge will try to win Canada's first Olympic medal in the sport.
Two more athletes were named to Team Canada for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Wednesday, both in the sport of canoe/kayak slalom.
Alex Baldoni and Lois Betteridge were the two athletes named to the team, and will both make their Olympic debuts, after qualifying in mid-March. Both won their respective C-1 events at the 2024 COPAC Canoe Slalom Americas Olympic Qualifier, booking their ticket to Paris.
The pair also medalled at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, with Betteridge , and Baldoni earning a silver in the men’s kayak cross.
Both will compete in C-1 events in Paris, as well as in the Olympic debut events of the kayak cross. Betteridge will also race in the K-1 event. In the K-1 and C-1 events, athletes race against the clock to get the fastest time, but in the newer kayak cross events four paddlers race against each other through a whitewater course with the winner advancing through several knockout rounds.
Betteridge, from Ottawa, has been on the national team since 2015, when she was 17 years old, and made her debut at the world championships in 2017. She won a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in the women’s C-1 event, and at Santiago 2023 earned silver medals in both the C-1 and kayak cross events.
She won gold in the women’s K-1 and silver in the women’s C-1 at the 2024 Pan American Championships in March, and now is set to compete on the biggest stage for the first time.
“I just returned from a training camp at the Olympic course in Paris and the venue is very impressive!” said Betteridge in a press release. “I’m really excited to see some of my friends and family sitting in the stands, cheering for Team Canada, in a country that is very passionate about canoeing. The energy at this event is going to be wild!”
Baldoni is from Pau, France but has a Canadian citizenship through his mother, and visited Canada for one month each year throughout his childhood.
He reached the final of the men’s C-1 at the 2023 ICF U23 World Championships, finishing tenth, and was a semifinalist in men’s kayak cross, placing fifth. Baldoni placed sixth in canoe slalom at the 2021 ICF Junior World Championships, Canada’s best-ever performance in the event.
“The last four years have been incredible, but also very hard while training,” Baldoni said in a press release. “I have worked really hard and spent countless hours on the water trying to improve on every possible aspect, whether technical, psychological, physical preparation, relaxation and recovery.
“Now I have finally qualified for my first Olympic Games! I am very much looking forward to experiencing such a great event and to becoming an Olympian!”
Canoe/kayak slalom made its debut at Munich 1972, but Canada are still looking for their first medal in the event. David Ford has Canada’s best-ever finish in the event, fourth in the men’s K-1 event at Athens 2004.
At Paris 2024, canoe/kayak slalom will take place from July 27 to August 5 at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
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