At the U.S. Olympic trials in Montgomery, Evy Leibfarth wins a spot to represent the United States in the women’s canoe slalom for the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer.
Rolando Arrieta/NPR
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At the U.S. Olympic trials in Montgomery, Evy Leibfarth wins a spot to represent the United States in the women’s canoe slalom for the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer.
Rolando Arrieta/NPR
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Tammy Sterling was planning to leave town last weekend. Instead, she stayed home to attend a sporting event she had never seen before.
“I’m actually watching the Olympic Trials and I’m going to see someone I watched today at the 2024 Paris Olympics. It’s just amazing. I love it,” Sterling said.
The U.S. Olympic team trials for canoe and kayak slalom took place Saturday and Sunday at Montgomery Whitewater, a new man-made water sports complex near downtown Montgomery. Hundreds of curious Alabamians came to the event.
Cindy Riggins was intrigued by the caliber of athletes coming to her hometown for this competition.
“It looks like a fun sport. It looks very tiring, you definitely have to be fit,” she said.
In canoe and kayak slalom, athletes race against the clock through a series of red and green gates suspended above raging rapids. Points are deducted if they hit or miss one of the doors. Coaches, teammates, friends and parents ran along the course, cheering and cheering the runner to the finish line.
“They sing: from top to top!” » said kayaker Nik Nijhawan. “That’s because red doors are also called gates, so it’s our own variation of ‘go, go, go,’” Nijhawan said.
Nijhawan, 16, is from Colorado and said he didn’t expect to make the Olympic team this year — “but in the next 10 years, it would be amazing.”
Evy Leibfarth, 20, of Bryson City, North Carolina, posted the fastest time in the kayak and canoe slalom events and was the only athlete among the nearly 70 who competed in Montgomery to earn a Olympic place in the women’s canoe slalom. The remaining spots for Team USA will be determined in Oklahoma City in two weeks.
American Evy Leibfarth will compete in the women’s canoe slalom C1 in July 2021 at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
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American Evy Leibfarth will compete in the women’s canoe slalom C1 in July 2021 at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
“This weekend was amazing for me. I’m really proud of my race this weekend. Overall it was awesome, emotional and so much fun.” said Leibfarth, who will compete in his second Olympics after finishing outside the top 10 in two events in Tokyo in 2020.
“It’s been a dream of mine to go to Paris for a very long time and I’m really excited to make it a reality,” Leibfarth added.
Strengthen the city’s sporting profile
Local leaders hope an Olympics-sanctioned event like this will help Montgomery’s economy and put the city on the map as a sports tourism destination.
Mayor Steven L. Reed said hosting the Olympic trials in the United States demonstrates a “pivot that we want to make, to make sure that sports tourism is also a big part of what’s happening here.”
He said he sees kayaking and canoeing competition at this level as a way to break down racial, economic and social barriers, especially among children. “Maybe they can be the first in Montgomery or maybe one of the first in Alabama to medal” in those events, the mayor said.
Montgomery Whitewater was built by the county for about $90 million and opened in July. It is the third man-made whitewater park in the United States, following facilities in Oklahoma City and Charlotte. It is part of a wider shift in the sport, with almost all top-level competitions now taking place on artificial courses.
Scott Shipley, a three-time kayak slalom Olympian and now a mechanical engineer, designed the three whitewater parks.
“It was something I wanted to bring to America,” Shipley said. “This is a completely recreational activity where there are not just 1%, but also church and school groups, families and friends who come to enjoy the white water where they are.”
Bringing greater visibility to paddle sports
Jedediah Hinkley, competition director for the American Canoe Association, visited the site a half-dozen times to make sure it was ready for the Olympic trials. He said his group and Montgomery shared a goal of “creating access to a sport that a lot of people here haven’t had access to historically.”
Even with the new location, not everyone in Montgomery is ready to paddle. Nick Riggins, who watched the events with his sister Cindy, said that when he first heard the city was investing in a whitewater park near downtown, he “thought it was a hoax”.
“It’s interesting to see how they maneuver with the kayaks and all that kind of stuff, but it’s not something I would want to do,” Riggins said. “There’s a lot of water moving really fast and I don’t want to do that.”
Still, he said, he was happy the facility was open.
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