While preparations continue for the Paris 2024 Olympic opening ceremony, athletes from our canoe slalom & kayak cross team are gearing up for their upcoming events.
Here’s a bit more information on the TeamGB squad before they compete between 27 July – 5 August at the Vaires-sur-Marne stadium.
In November, TeamGB announced the first four paddlers selected to go to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with Olympic Champion Joe Clarke MBE, Tokyo silver medallist Mallory Franklin, Kimberley Woods and Adam Burgess all returning for their second Olympics.
Kayak cross world champion Woods will compete at her second Olympic Games at Paris 2024 after an impressive 2023 which saw her reach the top of the globe and win nine medals across the season.
Woods was one of the stars on home waters as Lee Valley hosted the 2023 World Championships, finishing with an impressive haul of four medals.
She kicked off her campaign with gold and bronze in the C1 and K1 team events respectively before winning silver in the C1 and then ending on a high by claiming her first ever individual world title with a series of strong displays in the kayak cross.
As a result, Woods became only the third woman in canoeing history to win three different World Championship medals across three different disciplines.
Woods’ performances at Lee Valley, and elsewhere in 2023 where she won kayak cross World Cup gold in Prague and silver in Paris, earned her selection for Team GB for her second Olympic Games. She will compete in the women's kayak and women's kayak cross at Paris 2024.
Woods rounded off her Paris preparation with a kayak cross bronze at the World Cup in Krakow.
Burgess is set to compete at his second Olympic Games at Paris 2024 in the men’s C1 after showing impressive consistency in 2023.
He reached seven consecutive finals over the course of the 2023 season, narrowly missing out on podium finishes and placing fifth at the home World Championships at Lee Valley. He did win his fifth world team medal however with silver in the C1 team event.
Burgess was selected for his first Olympic Games for Tokyo 2020, competing in the men's C1 and producing a stunning run to take an agonising fourth place, missing out on a medal by 0.16 seconds.
In his early career, Burgess was the first British athlete ever to be crowned world under-23 champion in the C1 after winning gold in Brazil in 2015. Three years earlier in 2012, he won his first European title in the C2.
Franklin is Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s most successful female slalom paddler ever. She made history in 2021 after winning Olympic silver as, like herself, the women’s C1 event made its debut in Tokyo.
She will get the chance to bid for further Olympic success after being selected for the women’s canoe and kayak cross events for Paris 2024.
Her selection for Team GB comes after a superb 2023 that saw Franklin win her second career individual world title with an unbeatable display in the C1 on home waters at Lee Valley. That performance secured Britain’s boat quota place for Paris 2024.
At those home World Championships Franklin also won canoe team gold and kayak team bronze. A further three medals took her career World Championship tally to 16 ‒ seven gold, five silver and four bronze.
Joe Clarke MBE
Clarke is one of Great Britain’s most successful athletes ever having won medals at every major international event during an illustrious career to date.
The standout moment so far was when he made history at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, claiming Team GB’s first ever gold medal in the men’s canoe slalom K1 event.
Clarke has the opportunity to further cement his legacy after being selected to represent Team GB once more at Paris 2024 in both the K1 and kayak cross events.
He is the reigning world champion in the K1 and kayak cross, the latter set to appear at an Olympic Games for the first time in France, having dominated on home waters in 2023.
Those performances at the Lee Valley White Water Centre marked Clarke’s maiden K1 world title and third successive crown in the kayak cross.
In his final race before Paris 2024, Clarke won an incredible K1 gold to signal his intent for the Olympic Games.