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Evy Leibfarth, 17, of Bryson City, paddles in the Tokyo Olympic games.
Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics slalom competitions wrapped up Thursday, July 29 at the Kasai Slalom Center. For Evy Leibfarth, 17, of Bryson City, the experience was an amazing one as the first American woman to compete in the debut of the women’s canoe slalom events. A penalty in the semi-finals July 29 kept her from advancing into the WC1 finals.
She placed sixth and seventh in the heats in C1, putting downs runs of 115.55 and a seventh-place finish in the first heat. Leibfarth’s second run was even better than her first - it was slightly over two seconds faster (due to an added two second penalty on run 1). She finished 6th with a clean run to move onto the semi-finals.
“I’m so proud to be part of such a historic moment with all of these other amazing C-1 girls. Having a gender equal canoe slalom has been a big goal for a lot of women in the sport for years, even before I started competing, so this is exciting and such a good step,” she said after the heats.
The penalty in the semi-finals was from hitting a gate, costing her a 50-second penalty. Only the top 10 boaters advance to the finals with 18 women competing.
Her semifinal run started out rather smooth and looked promising until she arrived at gate 12, where she rolled from the downstream current and only the lower half of her body went through the gate.
“It was definitely not the run that I was looking for, but I have a lot to learn from it to take into my next races,” she said.
She continued to paddle strongly toward the finish line despite knowing her chance at the final was done - a true testament to her character and maturity.
“Something that is really important for me in paddling is to just keep going no matter what,” Leibfarth said. “You have to give it your all even if you know the race is pretty much over for you. I 50-ed, but I put it to the back of my mind for the rest of the run.”
Earlier in the week, Leibfarth finished 12th in the WK-1 semifinals as the youngest slalom competitor in Tokyo.
Her father, Lee Leibfarth, is Evy’s coach, and accompanied her to the competitions. He is a former U.S. Team kayak racer.
U.S. Canoe Kayak team’s Michal Smolen, 27, of Charlotte, placed fifth overall in the men’s kayak in the finals last week. He also has a history of paddling and training on the Nantahala River.
A welcome home party for the WNC 2020 whitewater slalom Olympians was held in Asheville’s River District at Wedge Foundation on Tuesday night with both Leibfarth and Smolen.
In 2019, Evy Leibfarth qualified for her first slalom senior national team in both women’s K-1 and C-1 at age 15. Despite being one of the youngest athletes on the international racing circuit, Leibfarth made finals and won medals at the world cups while also taking home a bronze medal in K-1 and a gold medal in the extreme slalom at the ICF Junior World Championships. She capped off her first season by earning the U.S. an Olympic quota spot with a fourth-place finish in C-1 at the 2019 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. Now 17, Leibfarth then qualified herself to fill that spot at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in April 2021.
Leibfarth plans to continue her career and begin training for the 2024 Paris Olympic games.
The canoe sprint competitions get underway on Aug. 2 with finals through Aug. 7.
Congratulations to the athletes and go #TeamUSA! Follow @officialusacanoekayak on Instagram and USA Canoe and Kayak Team on Facebook for live updates and team news.