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Whitewater extravaganza set
133 paddlers from around world will tackle rapids
JACK HORAN
Special Correspondent
The nation's top whitewater slalom paddlers converge on Charlotte next weekend for U.S. Olympic team trials and four concurrent racing events, the largest and most prestigious international sports affair ever for the city.
A total of 133 top slalom paddlers from the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and seven other countries will take on the riotous rapids at the U.S. National Whitewater Center from Friday through next Sunday. An elite few will go on to the Beijing Olympics in August for a grab at the gold. Crowds of up to 10,000 a day are expected to watch the Western Hemisphere's best slalom canoeists and kayakers navigate about two dozen gates in sleek, high-performance boats in timed races.
Among the 65 U.S. athletes are two former Olympians, kayakers Brett Heyl, 26, now a Charlottean, and Scott Parsons, 29, of Bethesda, Md., who competed in the Athens Games in 2004.
For three days, the $38 million center in western Mecklenburg will be transformed into an Olympics-sanctioned, slalom extravaganza. Spectators will watch live video of the races on a JumboTron (Saturday and next Sunday), see instant results on an electronic scoreboard and hear play-by-play accounts over the public address system. Athletes compete in one of four categories: men's kayak (K1), women's kayak (K1W), men's single canoe (C1) and men's tandem canoe (C2). The U.S. team trials are the only ones for any sport in the Carolinas for the 2008 Olympics.
A festival will offer entertainment. Between runs on the Competition Channel, spectators can visit food courts and beverage tents, hear live music and, on Saturday night, watch a fireworks display.
Fans driving to the center will enter via a new access road off Belmeade Drive. It will temporarily be open Friday-next Sunday. The current access, Hawfield Road, will be closed to the public, according to Jacquelyn Rowley at the whitewater center. Parking areas including three remote lots will hold 2,000 cars. Buses will shuttle fans. Parking will be free except in the lots next to the center. Advance tickets cost $10 a day; $15 for a three-day pass.
The more adventurous can stroke through the whitewater as well. While the Competition Channel will be closed, the adjoining Wilderness Channel and its Class II-III rapids will be open for guided raft trips and private whitewater boating.
The 2-year-old center has become the country's premiere whitewater slalom course. "The facility we have here in Charlotte is the newest, the biggest and the best," said David Yarborough, executive director of USA Canoe/Kayak in Charlotte, the national governing body for slalom and flatwater sprint racing.
Yarborough said the weekend of international racing could lead to Charlotte drawing one of three annual World Cup events or a World Championship, basically the Super Bowls of slalom racing. They're traditionally held in Europe, and the U.S. has never hosted them. "This, I think, is going to set the stage," Yarborough said.
Along with athletes and judges, others coming to Charlotte include:
• A delegation from Chicago, one of seven cities applying for the 2016 Olympics.
• A contingent from the U.S. Olympic Committee, of which USA Canoe/Kayak is a member.
• President Ulrich Feldhoff of the International Canoe Federation in Lausanne, Switzerland, slalom racing's international governing body, which determines sites for World Cups and World Championships.
At first just the U.S. Olympic team trials were scheduled for the center, Yarborough said. Canada opted to holds its team trials here, in part because the course is similar to that in Beijing. Then officials for the Pan Am Championships asked if the center could host their event as well. Here's the lineup and the significance of the five events:
U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS: Sixty-five paddlers will strive to earn a place on the 15-member 2008 Whitewater Slalom Senior National Team. Their best times in two of the three days will count. They'll also pick up points toward making the Olympic team and go on to World Cup No. 3 in Augsburg, Germany, for additional points. Paddlers who accumulate the most points will make the Olympics.
CANADIAN OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS: The Canadians will field 35 racers.
PAN-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: North and South American teams compete Friday and Saturday for gold, silver and bronze medals. Brazil will race 10 athletes, the largest number other than the U.S. and Canada.
AMERICAS OLYMPIC CONTINENTAL QUALIFIER: This essentially is a race within the Pan Am Championships. Countries must qualify boat berths as well as paddlers. The U.S. has qualified K1 and K1W boats and needs to qualify C1 and C2 boats to field a full team.
INTERNATIONAL CANOE FEDERATION RACES (open to all paddlers to earn points for world rankings): This event will draw paddlers from Australia, the Czech Republic and Ireland.
"To the uninitiated bystander, it's one big race," said Chris Hipgrave, Olympic high performance director for USA Canoe/Kayak.
Paddlers in the same boat category, regardless of nationality, will race twice a day. Their times will be applied to one or more events. Thus a U.S. paddler's times simultaneously could count toward Olympic team trials points, the continental qualifier and the Pan Am Championships.
Festival, race schedules
FRIDAY-NEXT SUNDAY
10 a.m.-6 p.m. YMCA Kid's Zone.
10 a.m.-7 p.m. Energy Lounge.
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Food Court.
11 a.m.-4 p.m. Slalom races.
7-10 p.m. Live music.
SATURDAY
11 a.m.-4 p.m. Slalom races.
4-9 p.m. Riverbottom Throwdown climbing competition.
4-7 p.m. Live music.
4:30 p.m. Pan-American Championships awards.
8:45 p.m. Fireworks.
NEXT SUNDAY
11 a.m.-4 p.m. Slalom races.
4:30 p.m. Awards ceremony.
Tickets, parking
Advance tickets for the slalom events are $10 a day or $15 for a three-day pass. Day-of-use tickets are $15 a day, $20 for a three-day pass. VIP tickets are $75 per day, $175 for a three-day pass. The center will provide 2,000 parking spaces. The main lot, the field beside the entrance road, will be free as will three remote lots. A free bus will ferry fans from the lots.
Hawfield Road, the current access road, will be closed to motorists. Motorists will be directed farther north on Moores Chapel Road to Belmeade Drive to connect to a new parkway to enter the center. More details: www.usnwc.org.
Making the Olympic team: Part One
Countries don't automatically get Olympic slots for slalom racing; they must earn them in races.
The process of qualifying boats and athletes follows separate but parallel paths. Here's how it works.
First, 82 athlete quotas (or boat berths) are available worldwide for the 2008 Olympics. They're distributed among the four slalom boats: Men's kayak (K1), women's kayak (K1W), men's single canoe (C1) and men's tandem canoe (C1).
Fifty-two boat berths were up for grabs in the 2007 World Championships in Brazil. Of that number, American paddlers qualified two for the U.S., K1 and K1W, in races against the world's top racers.
The remaining 30 were divvied up over the five continents, with Europe getting the largest share because of its top-ranked paddlers. North and South America got five berths, K1, K1W, C1 and C2 (a tandem canoe holds two paddlers).
This coming weekend, during the Americas Olympic Continental Qualifier races, the U.S. will designate teams to try to win C1 and C2 berths. They'll compete against other Western Hemisphere countries seeking Olympic berths. Fastest times win. The K1 and K1W berths will go to another country, or countries, even if U.S. paddlers post better times.
Chris Hipgrave, Olympic high performance director for USA Canoe/Kayak, said the races likely will come down to the U.S. versus Canada since Canada hasn't qualified its canoes either.
In the unlikely event American paddlers don't qualify one or both canoes, the U.S. could receive the berths. The International Canoe Federation can allocate boat slots to high-performing countries but only if total berths fall short of the Olympic maximum of 82.
Making the Olympic team: Part Two
U.S. paddlers win for a spot on the Olympic team by accumulating points in three events. They are the World Championships in Brazil in 2007, the team trials in Charlotte and World Cup No. 3 in Augsburg, Germany.
So far the only U.S. paddler with points is kayaker Scott Parsons of Bethesda, Md., who got 9 for his 7th-place finish in Brazil.
The three paddlers with the best runs in each of K1, K1W and C1 categories will win spots on the 2008 Whitewater Slalom Senior National Team. So will six paddlers in three C2s. The new team, 12 boats and 15 paddlers, will move on to Augsburg. The Olympic team will be drawn from these athletes.
The 30 finishers will earn points toward Olympic team selection, with 30 points going to first place, 29 for second and so on.
At World Cup No. 3, U.S. paddlers will face the stiff competition from top international paddlers as they strive for spots in the top 20 places.
Racking up points at Augsburg is important because it's just a month away from the Olympics. "You want an athlete who's fast in August 2008, not in August 2007," said Chris Hipgrave, Olympics high performance director for USA Canoe/Kayak.
The five athletes with the highest cumulative points from the three events will make the U.S. Olympic team, which will be announced July 7.
Whitewater slalom racing
Paddlers race in men's kayak, women's kayak, men's single canoe and men's tandem canoe on a whitewater course marked by 18-25 numbered "gates", poles suspended over the water.
The object is to make the fastest time without missing or striking the gates. Touching a gate with a helmet, paddle or boat results in a penalty that adds 2 seconds to the paddlers' run time. Missing a gate adds 50 seconds to a run.
Paddlers will make two runs a day on the 1,000-foot-long Competition Channel with Class III-IV rapids at the U.S. National Whitewater Center. Their times will be combined with any penalty seconds. Thus, runs of 95 seconds and 99 seconds plus a 2-second penalty would add up to 196 seconds.
U.S. athletes who have won Olympic slalom racing medals are (gold) C2 Joe Jacobi and Scott Strausbaugh (1992); (silver) K1W Rebecca Giddens (2004); and (bronze), K1 Dana Chladek (1992) and C1 Jamie McEvan (1972).
U.S., Brazilian, Canadian and other athletes will train this week at designated times on the Competition Channel at the U.S. National Whitewater Center: today, 6-8:30 p.m.; Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-noon. For directions, see www.usnwc.org.
