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Each 'gate' consists of two poles hanging from a wire strung across the river. There are usually 20 to 25 numbered gates in a course and they are colored as either downstream (green) or upstream (red) indicating the direction they must be crossed. Slalom courses usually take 80 to 200 seconds to navigate and each competitor has two runs. Either the best run (for smaller races) or the sum of the two runs is taken for the final result (for National and Olympic competitions). If the competitor's boat, paddle or body touches either pole of the gate a time penalty is awarded; two seconds are added to the competitor's time for each gate hit. If the competitor misses a gate completely, displaces it by more than 45 degrees, goes through the gate upside-down, or goes through gates in the wrong order, a 50 second penalty is given. Slalom boats are low volume and have a thin profile to enable them to get underneath the gate poles. Their low volume sterns allow the boat to slice through the water via what is called a pirouette. Typically, new racing boats cost between $1,200 and $2,500 (or £650 onwards for the cheapest constructions in fibreglass). Slalom canoeing made its Olympic debut in 1972 in Augsburg, W. Germany. It was not seen again until 1992 in Seu d'Urgell as part of the Barcelona games. Since then, slalom paddling has been a regular at the Olympics. The Olympic locations have been as follows: 1972: Augsburg, W. Germany 1992: Seu d'Urgell, Spain 1996: Ocoee River, U.S.A. 2000: Penrith, Austraila 2004: Athens, Greece There are four Olympic Medal events:
For more details on the International rules (and to see the sources for these changes) please see the pdf of the international slalom rules as stated by the International Canoe Federation website: {Link without Title} |