All About Olympic Canoe Kayak - Go Canada - Ok I am Bias :)

This is especially critical in the heavier crew boats.

"There's more momentum and more potential for glide between the strokes. The boat doesn't decelerate the same. It's like a supertanker: once you get it up to speed, it's pretty hard to slow down."

In crew events, paddlers must also be in absolute synch with one another.

"That means that timing is together, they are in stroke," Logan says.

"It's very important that they all apply force at the same time. If that's not done, the advancement of the boat forward is disjointed."

In all event classes, pacing and momentum are the keys to a good finish. "A lot of the sport is about physiologically pacing yourself, so that you decelerate less than your competitors at the end of the ace," says Logan.

"What all that means, from an efficiency or a physiological perspective, is that you're able to maintain your boat speed evenly throughout the race, and have enough at the end that you decelerate less than your competitors."

The sprint kayak has a rudder the athletes move with their feet to steer while they paddle. Kayakers sit in a cockpit, often using a spray skirt to keep water out of the boat. Kayakers use a double-bladed paddle.

Sprint canoes are more of a challenge to manoeuvre: they have no rudders, so athletes must steer with their paddles. In addition, canoeists kneel in their boats, and their paddles are single-bladed.

Boats used to be made of wood. These days they have a core of expanded fibreglass and foam sandwiched between exterior layers of aircraft-grade fibreglass, Kevlar or carbon-fibre materials. The materials are bound together with heat-cured epoxy resins.

All boats are checked three days before competition and again just before each race to make sure they meet official specifications. And the specs are constantly changing, says Logan, meaning "boats continue to get modified."

"[There are] very few restrictions now so it's a bit of a free-for-all. Weight is the same, length is the same, but the width %u2026 I mean, these things are so skinny now, it's unbelievable compared to what I paddle!"

Logan concedes that narrow hips are a rarely mentioned key to success in sprinting. "Believe it or not that is a factor. Some of these big, big guys just can't fit in these boats."

There are four whitewater events: men compete in three and women compete in one. In both men's and women's events, the aim is to negotiate a 300-meter course consisting of 18 to 25 gates in the shortest amount of time, with time added for penalties. Boats go one at a time and race against the clock, not each other. Men compete in two canoe events and one kayak event, and the women's event is in the kayak

Beam: The widest part of a canoe

Bent-shaft paddle: A paddle with a bend in the shaft. This paddle gives the athlete more power, but it's hard to handle

Bowhand: The paddler in the front of the boat

Broach: To become caught in the current and turn sideways in a whitewater event

Chute: A narrow portion of a whitewater course

Double-bladed paddle: A kayak paddle with a blade at either end

Downstream gate: A green-and-white striped gate in a whitewater course. The athlete passes this gate going in the same direction as the current.

Eddy: A pool of calm water away from the main current

Eskimo roll: When the paddler stays in place as the boat rolls over and back into an upright position

Gunwale: The upper edge of the side of a canoe

Riding the wash: Gaining an unfair advantage by travelling in the wash of the next boat

Stem: The forward part of a boat

Stern: The back end of a boat

Sternsman: A paddler who kneels or sits in the back position of a canoe or kayak

Wash: The rough or broken water left behind a boat as it moves along the water

Buy at AllPosters.com