Paris 2024: All Eyes on Evy and Eichfeld (Bonus: Watch Evy’s Qualifying Run)

Evy Leibfarth, Casey Eichfeld Earn Team Trials Spots to Compete in Paris Olympics

After April’s two U.S. team trial competitions—the first at the new Montgomery Whitewater facility in Montgomery, Ala., and two weeks later another at RiverSports OKC in Oklahoma City, both designed by fellow Olympian Scott Shipley of S20 Designs/Calibre Engineering—the country’s hopes for whitewater medals in this summer’s Paris Olympics come down to just two kayakers: female phenom Evy Leibfarth who qualified for women’s Kayak Slalom and Kayak Cross, and Casey Eichfeld, who qualified for men’s Canoe Slalom.

Points-wise, Leibfarth, 20, was the only paddler who secured enough points in the Montgomery, Ala., trials to earn a berth on the Olympic team heading to Paris, with everyone else having to attend another team trials event at RiverSport in Oklahoma City April 26-27. There, for the men’s C-1, after battling it out neck and neck in Montgomery, Eichfeld and Zachary Lokken took their battle to Oklahoma City, where again it came down to the second run to determine who got the golden ticket to Paris. Eichfeld’s combined total runs of 89 seconds in both heats outpaced Lokken’s finishes of 87.58 and 94.94 to earn the coveted spot on the team heading to Paris. In Men’s kayak, Michal Smolen earned the U.S. team slot, but the U.S. failed to qualify a boat earlier to compete in Men’s K-1.

Tokyo Olympics Results: Michal Smolen (MK1 – 5th), Zachary Lokken (MC1 – 7th), and Evy Leibfarth (WK1 – 12th, WC1 – 18th).

A Little Background on Evy

Evy, now age 20, could be the U.S.’s best hope moving forward to carry the whitewater slalom torch to the Olympic podium. She got in her first kayak when she was four, with her father, a former National Team coach, coaching her as she started racing. She joined the Nantahala Racing Club and paddled at the Nantahala River every day after school. Later, she enrolled in online school to train formally. At age 12, she travelled to Europe to race in the ECA Junior Cups, paving her way to the National Team, which she was finally old enough to make In 2019. She had an incredible first season and brought home two World Cup medals, two Junior World Championships medals, and two Pan-American medals. Evy also earned an Olympic quota for her fourth-place finish at the World Championships in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain. Her second year on the team, Evy won two more World Cup medals.

After her results at the 2019 World Championships and the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team trials, she raced in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the WC1 and WK1 classes, taking 12^th in K-1 and 18^th in C-1. When not training or competing, she enjoys snowboarding, surfing, painting and cooking.

Watch Evy’s Time Trial run here:

8 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT EVY LEIBFARTH

(courtesy American Canoe Association)

1. Evy made her World Cup debut at 15-years-old in 2019 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
2. Evy’s first World Cup podium was a third place in the WC1 event in Tacen, Slovenia at age 15 in 2019
3. Before Evy goes to the starting gate, you may find her drawing in the team tent.
4. Evy first tried kayaking when she was four years old and has loved it ever since. She is coached by her father, Lee Leibfarth.

1. When she isn’t on the river, Evy enjoys drawing, hiking, snowboarding, and cooking.
2. 2019 was a breakout season for Evy. She competed at the World Championships in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain, and finished 4th in WC1 and 21st in WK1, qualifying an Olympic quota for the U.S.
3. Evy plans to major in Biology at Davidson College while continuing to train full-time.
4. Her favorite race so far has been the Pan-American Games, where she won gold in the WK1 event and silver in Extreme Slalom.

Some notes on slalom

In canoe slalom, the boats are small, light, and agile, allowing athletes to efficiently maneuver through the rapids as they perform mastery through and around 12 to 19 downstream (green) and 6 to 8 upstream (red) gates on a 150 to 400 meters long whitewater course. The athlete receives a 2-second penalty for a touched gate and a 50-second penalty for a missed or incorrectly navigated gate. An athlete that records the lowest score, which is a combination of the time and penalties, wins. Canoe slalom originated in Switzerland as a summer alternative to slalom skiing in 1933. It debuted as an Olympics sport during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, and it appears continuously in the Olympic program since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Some notes on Extreme Slalom/Kayak Cross

Extreme slalom or Kayak Cross is a new event that will appear for the first time on the program of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Several TV networks broadcasted the event live since its introduction by the International Canoe Federation (ICF) at the World Cups. Extreme slalom athletes combine skills of several white-water disciplines as they race in mass-produced plastic creek boats. The excitement begins at the start, with four competitors simultaneously sliding off a ramp more than six feet above the water and splashing onto the course. From there, athletes need to negotiate both downstream and upstream buoys and execute a compulsory 360-degree kayak roll while continuously adjusting tactics to avoid dangerous paddling. A contact between athletes is allowed, which adds to the thrills and excitement for spectators and athletes alike. Extreme slalom is a race of strategy and tactics, where early lead is not always desirable.

Find Slalom and Kayak Cross National Team information, including updates, upcoming races, team member bios on the Slalom and Kayak Cross page.