"READY STEADY TOKYO" Canoe (Sprint) Test Event Held

This venue is a newly constructed facility for the 2020 Games and will be used for both canoe and rowing events during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Canoe events include Sprint, where athletes start simultaneously on a flat, straight course and compete for finishing order, and Slalom, where athletes race down whitewater rapids, passing through suspended gates in sequence to compete for time and technical skill. (The Slalom venue is the Canoe Slalom Center adjacent to Kasai Rinkai Park.)

Two types of canoes are used in competition: the Canadian canoe, using a paddle with a blade (paddle blade) on only one side, and the kayak, using a paddle with blades on both ends. Furthermore, sprint events include single (one-person), pair (two-person), and four (four-person) categories, with distances of 200, 500, and 1000 meters.
These combinations result in a total of 12 sprint events and 4 slalom events for men and women.
Paracanoe, on the other hand, became an official sport at the 2016 Rio Games.

Canoe sprint races are decided in roughly 30 to 50 seconds from start to finish.
After the initial burst off the start, the sight of athletes propelling themselves across the water at breakneck speed, spraying water as they go, is both powerful and exhilarating. The rhythmic, efficient movements of the athletes captivate spectators, and the intense battle during the final sprint keeps eyes glued to the action until the very end.

Europe is a stronghold for canoeing. Germany is traditionally considered a powerhouse. Other sprint powerhouses include Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Spain, Russia, Norway, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, and New Zealand. In slalom, France, Spain, Slovakia, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Australia are among the leading nations.

On the 13th, as an experiment in heat countermeasures, crushed ice was dropped onto the spectator stands using snow machines.

Until recently, canoeing attracted little attention in Japan. However, it gained prominence when Takuya Haneda won Japan's first-ever bronze medal in the men's slalom Canadian single at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Expectations are high for further success at the Olympics hosted in their home country.