Paris Olympics 2024: Olympian Evy Leibfarth Completes Her 3-Year Goal to Bring Kayaking to America’s Notice

Ace canoeist Evy Leibfarth just made history for the USA. She became the first American woman to qualify for three canoe/kayak events in the Paris Olympics in 2024. This adds another page to the surging resume of the 20-year-old who represents the US in the Olympics for the second time. In Tokyo, Evy was the youngest female to compete in both kayak and the inaugural canoe slalom events and the only American to qualify. But that was not an accidental success.

Evy Leibfarth grew up in a family that is very much invested in paddling. Therefore, her international career took off as early as 12 years. “I started racing internationally when I was 12. Since then, my love for the sport has only grown,” Evy said. that love for the sport has made her look beyond success, victory, and medals. More than personal achievements, she has a goal for her sport when she takes the stage in the Paris Olympics.

Standing up for the sport beyond victories

Evy finished 12th in kayak and 18th in canoe in the Tokyo Olympics. While that may not sound impressive, the invaluable experience set the tone for the coming four years. “Just being able to see that emotion and that energy around the sport really has motivated me for the past four years leading up to the cycle,” Evy explains. That emotion makes her look beyond herself with the hope of inspiring more talents in the sport and bring the attention of the country to kayaking.

“It’s a catalyst for me to want to get a medal, not just for myself, but for the sport in the US. A lot of people don’t know about kayaking. Every four years we have the Olympics. That’s the stage to show people and be able to have kids watch it and be like, ‘Oh my God, I want to go to the Olympics someday.’ I really want to be able to do that for my sport,” Evy chalks out her vision. With all that in mind, Evy has been pushing herself hard since the Tokyo outing.

““I’ve done everything that I possibly could in the past three years to prepare for this race. Whatever happens, I gave it my absolute all,” said the youngest paddler to clinch a World Cup medal (finished third in the canoe in Tacen, Slovenia). And in this journey, Evy has got a formidable support right in her home.

Evy’s father and coach, Lee Leibfarth, is a professional boater who coached the US junior national team before dedicating himself entirely to his daughter, which is what is fueling her passion. She said, “Having my dad coach me is so special, and to share the same love of kayaking”. Similar to her dad, Evy began in canoe slalom, a sport in which competitors individually traverse a route through gates. Although the canoe (C1) and kayak (K1) slaloms are different, some skills are similar to both. Interestingly, in Paris, apart from Kayak Slalom and Canoe Slalom, Evy will also take part in Kayak Cross, a new event added this year. Let’s hear from her about her thoughts about the event.

Kayak cross: a tough but ‘fun’ outing

According to Evy, kayak cross is more demanding than other disciplines. “Kayak cross is just a whole other world because there are suddenly four people flying off a ramp at the same time. You have to make so many split-second decisions and react to what other people are doing. And it’s not like you can have a plan in your mind and stick to that. It changes every second. That variability makes it just a lot different mentally than kayaking,” Evy explains. To add to that, in traditional kayaking and canoeing, the participant is penalized on touching a gate. A two-second penalty is handed for that or a 50-second penalty for missing it. But in kayak cross, one gets disqualified for missing a gate. But that very difference makes it exciting for Evy.

“I love competing in kayak cross. It’s so much fun. It’s just so different from what I kind of grew up doing,” Evy said. And to conquer the toughness factor of kayak cross, Evy has an equally tough training regime in place. Something that is not limited by adversities, rather more enhanced by it. Therefore, she is not deterred by the harsh North Carolina winters.

“We also have sessions where we have to break the ice to the eddies before we can paddle and where it’s snowing on us. A lot of that is mentally pushing through and just still paddling as hard as you can cause even when it’s cold out, we can still get really good training in,” Evy said about her training. Not only physical, but with this exhaustive training, she aims to attain the mental toughness in the sport which is also an important component of it. It remains to be seen, whether Evy adds one more page to her history-making career in the Parisian waters.