Canoe Marathon

Canoe marathons refers to longer distance flatwater canoe events. At the Olympics, these have only been held over 10,000 metres, although 5,000 metre events have been on the program at the World Championships. The two types of canoes used are the kayak, in which the paddler sits inside a covered shell, and the Canadian, in which the paddler kneels on one knee with the top of the canoe open. The Canadian events use a single-bladed paddle, with the paddler alternating sides of the canoe for strokes, while the kayak uses a double-bladed paddle.

The 10,000 metre events were only on the Olympic Program from 1936-1956. Races were contested for both kayaks and Canadian canoes, in both singles and doubles, although Canadian singles was not held in 1936. In addition, in 1936, 10K events for folding kayaks in singles and doubles were also held.

Outside of the Olympics, canoe marathons are very popular, and the races are often much longer than 10 km, with races of 30-50 km being common, and some races being 200 km or longer. In addition to kayak and Canadian canoe events, canoe marathons are sometimes contested in outrigger canoes.

The Swedes and Germans were the top performers in this Olympic discipline, with the top athlete being Sweden’s Gert Fredriksson, who won three medals in all, with two golds medals in K-1 in 1948 and 1956. Fredriksson also won four golds and one bronze in canoe sprint events, totaling eight Olympic medals and six gold medals in these two canoeing disciplines. Four other athletes won two medals in Olympic 10K races, oddly all winning one gold and one silver medal. These were as follows: Gunnar Åkerlund (SWE), Frank Havens (USA), Hans Wetterström (SWE), and Kurt Wires (FIN).

Canoeing is governed worldwide by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) [in French: Fédération Internationale de Canoë (FIC)], which was founded in 1946 in Stockholm. The ICF succeeded the Internationale Repräsentantenschaft Kanusport (IRK), which was created on 19 January 1924, in München, with four founding members: Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. As of 2022, the ICF has 169 member nations.