The recent Slalom World Championships and upcoming 2028 Olympic Games aren’t the only events being hosted by Oklahoma City’s RiverSport Whitewater Center. During the last week of August, the world-class whitewater course, in conjunction with Oklahoma State University, will also host the 2026 Swiftwater Conference and Championship Games.
The event, which runs from Aug. 24-28, is designed for first responders, including fire departments, law enforcement, EMS, Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams, and military personnel, and provides advanced education and hands-on training in swiftwater rescue operations.
RiverSport operates as a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Site and regularly hosts national and international competitions in rowing and paddlesports. But this marks the first time it will be used for such high-level rescue skills. Across the five days, the conference pairs classroom instruction from OSU’s fire rescue program with hands-on training at RiverSport’s $45 million whitewater facility. Participants will develop critical skills through realistic rescue scenarios and advanced techniques such as raft flips, vehicle rescues, and tension diagonal operations.
The venue is the perfect place for practicing such skills. Designed by S20 Designs/Calibre Engineering as a whitewater park — similar to such other S20-designed courses as the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC; Lee Valley Whitewater Center in London, home of the 2012 Olympics; and Montgomery Whitewater in Montgomery, AL — its controlled environment also lends itself to such rescue scenarios.
“These parks are such a unique training experience,” says S20 Founder Scott Shipley, himself a three-time Olympian and Slalom World Champion. “In no other environment can you create real whitewater that can be configured to create the ideal training scenario for things like vehicle rescue, low-head dam, or strainers; run the scenario with the confidence that you can turn the water off at a moment’s notice if something goes wrong; and then reset, reconfigure and restart on the next scenario.”
“Most often we apply our skill set crafting whitewater-based recreation facilities, but designing projects like this to train first responders is also super rewarding. Regional emergency response teams will no longer depend on finding a creek or river with proper conditions for this vital training.”
While the Oklahoma venue was designed primarily as a whitewater venue, S20/Calibre has also designed two courses specifically for such rescue scenarios. A state-of-the-art flood rescue facility in Houston offers flood, swiftwater, low-head dam training and more for first responders. Located near HCC’s campus in northeast Houston, the $25 million, 75,000-square-foot facility is currently the world’s most advanced urban flood simulator solely dedicated to training fire, law enforcement, and EMS responders on the technical skills necessary to perform life-saving water rescues. With the capacity to train 3,000 – 4,000 first responders per year, it includes a large swiftwater channel, 25-acre dive and powerboat and flatwater training pond, and an urban flood simulator to allow rescue personnel to train in flooded streets and buildings. Massive pumps move water into the “streets and buildings,” simulating a flood event in a controlled environment to maintain participants’ safety.
The company also designed the New York State Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany, NY, operated by the New York State Division of Homeland Security, which is the only other mock urban flood training center in the country.
Following the hands-on instruction and seminars at RiverSport, the venue will host the Swiftwater Championship Games on Friday, Aug. 28, from 1 to 4:30 p.m., open to first responders nationwide. The competition awards individual and team prizes, with participants showcasing their technical rescue skills in a challenging whitewater environment. Spectators are welcome to watch the games, and media are invited to cover the event.
Registration is $649 per individual, and space is limited. For more information and to register, visit riversportokc.org/event/swiftwater-conference or email rikim@osufst.org.