During a visit to Egypt, President of the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Thomas Konietzko announced that the ICF had selected Egypt to launch a development project for the sport in Africa.

Konietzko made the announcement in a press conference held in Cairo at the Egyptian Olympic Committee headquarters, and which was attended by stakeholders of canoeing, National Olympic Committee (NOC) Vice President Alaeddin Gabr, NOC Secretary-General Sherif Al-Erian, and President of the Egyptian Canoe Federation Ayman Shweta, as well as representatives of the ministries of sport and foreign affairs.

“With this project, Egypt will play a major role in the development of canoe sports throughout Africa,” Konietzko said in his opening address.

On why the ICF selected Egypt for the project, Konietzko said “Egypt is fast growing in the sport here in Egypt. They have the infrastructure and the potential to develop.”

He said the ICF will be working in close cooperation with the African Canoe Confederation to adopt a new approach to the development and growth of canoeing throughout Africa by specifically targeting national federations that are already making progress in paddle sports. Canoeing involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle.

“In the past, we have tried to spread our development efforts and investment in training, education and delivery of new equipment across as many countries as possible on the African continent,” Konietzko said.

“We have analysed the results of this strategy and determined that this was the most efficient way of developing canoe on the African continent. As our resources are also limited, we have decided to support African Canoe Federations, in addition to other ongoing activities like our development camps, with additional targeted programmes in the future.

“During our visit to Egypt, we believe the country has the potential to host a World Canoe Championship one day, by hosting continental and international championships as a beginning, as well as junior and Youth World Championships,” Konietzko told Al-Ahram Weekly.

At the press conference it was also announced that a continental director, Egyptian Amr Temraz, will lead the ICF-funded project and who, in a first step will help Egyptian clubs create models to encourage more children to start and get involved in canoeing, and to train and develop coaches at all levels.

According to the ICF, part of the project will focus on identifying and educating new coaches and officials and to educate the coaches of national teams. The final step will see talented athletes and their coaches train with strong European nations to further enhance their development.

“The duration of the project is one year, however, it all depends on how it goes. We will be monitoring and following up on the progress with Amr. It can take months or a year or even more,” Konietzko told the Weekly, praising the Egypt Canoe and Kayak Federation for the work already done to ensure canoe sports have a strong foothold throughout the country. “This could not have been achieved without the support of the Egyptian National Olympic Committee and the Egyptian government,” he said.

“There is a good structure here with numerous clubs at the grassroots level and a strong national canoe team. The world-class organisation of the Nile Regatta inspires not only African nations but nations and athletes around the world,” he added.

“More and more Egyptians are practicing canoeing as a recreational activity and using this as a means to stay healthy. Recreational canoeing is as important for your society as high-performance sport, so that should also be an objective for growth in this area for the federation. With all these activities the Egyptian Canoe Federation will become a role model in our sport in Africa.”

Konietzko told the audience there had already been major steps taken in the global spread of canoeing. In London in 2012, nearly all of the Olympic medals went to European countries. But in Tokyo last year the medals were spread across four continents. “Now it is time for Africa to go to the Olympics and win a medal. This is my vision for all five continents to be there, compete and win in the Olympics and this is why we are here. We want to help. Egypt is in a good position and can one day fight for an Olympic medal in the future.” He said this continued growth was necessary to strengthen canoeing’s place in the Olympic movement, and was a direct result of the ICF’s strategy to focus development activities on continents outside of Europe.

Canoeing has been featured as a competition sport in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Games in Berlin although it was a demonstration sport at the 1924 Games in Paris. There are two disciplines of canoeing in Olympic competition: slalom and sprint.

Two weeks ago, the ICF and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) signed an MOU to work together to increase canoeing activities on the continent. Egypt, Konietzko said, will be one of the nations the ICF will look to lead the projects.

“We can only succeed in implementing these goals in a joint effort by all partners,” he said. “Let us all work together to make canoeing even stronger in Egypt, and fulfil our common dream of Egyptian athletes competing for Olympic medals. For this, we as the ICF will do everything we can.”

Temraz, the continental project director, explained that the aim of the project was “supporting Africa. As the ICF president said, Africa is a very large continent but the participation from the continent in World Championships, cups and the Olympics is minimal. Very few countries take part and that doesn’t make sense for the ICF. They want all continents participating and for the medals to be distributed among all continents,” he said.

“In canoeing, athletes are not supposed to be training, paddling or competing in current waters, but dead waters, and this is why the ICF president came here to discuss with Egyptian officials creating artificial lakes for canoeing because if we go to the Olympics we need to establish an artificial Olympic course to train. All of Africa does not have this so we will be the first in the continent to have such a course.”

A few of the recreational forms of canoeing are canoe camping and canoe racing. Other forms include a wide range of canoeing on lakes, rivers, oceans, ponds and streams.

“Africa started the sport 20 years ago but the international body found that the philosophy and strategy they had didn’t go well, so they started this new project, by making an announcement for an appointment for a continental director. I applied among 15 others from Africa. We were interviewed twice and then I was chosen to hold this responsibility, which is a big one,” Temraz told the Weekly.

Temraz, a former athlete, talked about the aims and goals of the ICF project. “They want to work on increasing the number of paddlers, clubs, family of canoe in each country and elevate and develop the level of coaches and officials, grow the level for the national federations by working together with their NOCs and ministries of sports by building more channels among them. We start with Egypt, as the strongest in the sport in the continent and then move along, one country after the other, while testing the results on the way. It is a short plan where you teach somebody, who then passes it to others, then moving to others, creating networks and sustainability for the development in Africa.”

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 August, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.