Canoe Slalom
Kayaker Evy Leibfarth strives to paddle for a new generation of women
Evy Leibfarth has been pushing canoe slalom limits ever since she was a young teen. Now, she’s ready to bring kayak cross to the stage in Paris and hopes to inspire a new generation of paddlers.
When Evy Leibfarth was a teenager, she was already a champion athlete, carving her path in the adrenaline-pumping world of canoe slalom. Growing up practically on the water, with a family steeped in paddling, Evy's destiny was intertwined with whitewater rapids from a young age.
By the time she was old enough to drive, she'd become a national champion and the youngest-ever US Team Trials winner in canoe slalom. Her trophy cabinet boasts Pan American Championships, World Cup podium finishes and a Junior World Championship title in the emerging discipline of Extreme Slalom.
Of course, her journey on the whitewater is far from over. Now, with Paris on the agenda, she shares with us the driving force behind her exceptional talent.
01
Becoming the youngest paddler to win a World Cup medal
Evy's international career already started at age 12, where she spent three years on the junior circuit. The experience proved invaluable as she watched and learned from the top women in Europe, the powerhouse of the sport. By age 14, she was the top-ranked female in the country.
"I always had that dream of going to some really big competitions. As I got older, I fell more and more in love with kayaking. I started racing internationally when I was 12," says Evy. “Since then, my love for the sport has only grown.”
There's a lot of work on my visualisation skills, working on breathing techniques and how to deal with stress around races. because the mental part of racing is just as important as physical
Her first team trials took place on the whitewater course in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2016. Three years later, Evy became the youngest paddler to clinch a World Cup medal when she finished third in canoe in Tacen, Slovenia.
02
Qualifying for Tokyo in her teens
At the age of 17, she qualified for the Games in Tokyo. Again, Evy was the youngest female to compete in both kayak and the inaugural canoe slalom events and the only American to qualify. Finishing 12th in kayak and 18th in canoe, her debut was an invaluable learning experience.
By just 14, Evy Leibfarth was already the top-ranked woman in the country
© Grace Sorrells
“I was inspired by the other athletes there winning gold medals and having the runs of their lives,” Evy says. “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.”
03
Growing up on the water
But where did this passion and inspiration all begin? Evy grew up in Bryson City, North Carolina, a small town on The Nantahala River where whitewater was a playground and a training ground. “I was pretty much born into it,” Evy explains. Her mother, a former paddling instructor, and her father, a slalom racer and now her coach, nurtured Evy's talent from her earliest years. Before she even had her own kayak, she was already navigating rivers, nestled safely on her dad's lap. "I'd always tell him, 'Faster! Faster!'" she recalls.
Whitewater has always been part of Evy Leibfarth’s life
© Grace Sorrells
When she turned four, Evy transitioned from passenger to paddler in her own pink kayak, and it wasn't long after that her competitive aspirations soon followed. At the age of six, gymnastics whetted Evy’s appetite for competition. Canoe slalom soon became her sport of choice.
04
Coached by her father
Fuelling her dream is Evy’s coach and father, Lee Leibfarth, a competitive boater himself who coached the US junior national team before turning his full attention to his daughter.
“Having my dad coach me is so special, and to share the same love of kayaking,” she says.
Like her father, Evy started in canoe slalom where paddlers individually navigate a course through gates. While canoe (C1) and kayak (K1) slalom differ, certain skills transfer between the disciplines.
Kayak cross – a race featuring four competitors released from a chute onto the course – emerged in 2015 and will debut this summer in Paris. Evy finished third in the 2021 World Championships in Slovakia in kayak cross.
“In the more traditional fall, which is kayak and canoe, you have this stretch of river that has rapids and around 24 gates that you have to go through,” says Evy. “It's individual. You're the only one on the course at that time and it's very planned out.
Evy Leibfarth visualises the course a long time before she actually does it
© Grace Sorrells
“We all visualise the course a long time before we do it. We know exactly what strokes we're going to take in each gate. And it all depends on us.”
05
The mental and physical demands of kayak cross
Mentally, kayak cross is more demanding. Unlike C1 and K1, where athletes compete against the course and the clock, boaters race against three opponents on a course with a maximum of six downstream gates and two upstream gates. Before the conclusion of the event, each contestant must perform a 360-kayak roll.
“Kayak cross is just a whole other world, because there are suddenly four people flying off a ramp at the same time,” says Evy. “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.”
While the boaters use the same course for all three divisions, the gates are significantly different. “In kayak cross, you're allowed to hit them and they're big,” says Evy. “You can bump into them. In the more traditional kayaking and canoe, you’re penalised when you touch a gate. You have a two-second penalty for that or a 50-second penalty for missing it. In kayak cross, you just get disqualified if you do miss a gate.”
In kayak cross, Evy Leibfarth needs to make split-second decisions
© Grace Sorrells
06
A training routine that follows the sun
When it comes to the weather, Evy makes sure it never slows her preparation. In fact, her training camps only intensify during the winter. She “follows the sun” to locales south of the Equator such as Australia, where she spent two-and-a-half months this year, and South America.
While the warmer climates allow Evy to “focus her energy on technique and paddling rather than staying warm,” the North Carolina winters don’t discourage her practice.
“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,” says Evy. “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.”
The mental part of racing is as important as the physical for Evy Leibfarth
© Grace Sorrells
Three to four days a week, Evy participates in off-the-water routines such as running, hiking, aerobics, cross training or mountain biking. She has incorporated reflex training to enhance her kayak cross experience, along with stretching, yoga and other mindfulness exercises.
“There's a lot of work on my visualisation skills, working on breathing techniques and how to deal with stress around races. because the mental part of racing is just as important as physical,” says Evy.
07
Next up: bringing kayak cross to the world stage in Paris
Now, the prospect of a new challenge as Paris approaches – and a third opportunity for a medal – is all the incentive she needs to keep that motivation at a high.
“I love competing in kayak cross,” she says. “It’s so much fun. It's just so different from what I kind of grew up doing. Then there's also that part of it's going to be in the Olympics for the very first time, and there's going to be so many people watching it for the first time.
“It's a really exciting sport to watch because so much is going on. Everyone has different colored bibs on. So it's really easy to cheer the person and root them on.”
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.
Evy Leibfarth's key objective is to earn more international podiums
© Grace Sorrells
Evy has completed her second year at Davidson College, where she studies biology. Ultimately, she would like to practise sports medicine or work as a physical therapist. Although the Whitewater Center is just 24 miles south of the campus, her education is on hold to concentrate on the world stage in Paris.
“It's a catalyst for me to want to get a medal, not just for myself, but for the sport in the US,” says Evy. “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.”
Her expectations for Paris are realistic. She’s learned to trust her training and appreciate the journey – no matter the outcome.
“I've become really good friends with a lot of my teammates and people I compete with from different countries,” she says. “When I'm training in Australia or Europe and we’re getting to paddle together, we push each other to make all of us better. Then we go into the city or go to the beach and do all these fun things. Just kind of having that global community of friends is everything I dreamed of when I was little.
“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.”