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| Born | March 23, 1967 Edmonton, Alberta | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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David Watson Ford (born March 23, 1967 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian slalom canoeist who has competed since the mid-1980s and is still actively competing. He is Canada's most successful slalom paddler.
Ford has won two medals in the K1 event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. In 1999 he became the first non-European to win the World Championship title. [1] Ford followed up with a World Championship silver in 2003. In 2003 he also won the overall World Cup title in K1. [2] He was named Male Athlete of the Year at the 2003 Canadian Sport Awards, and was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. [1]
Ford has competed in five Summer Olympics, earning a fourth-place finish in the K1 event in Athens in 2004. He had a sixth-place finish in the same event in 2008 in Beijing. Ford could not get a sixth appearance in the 2012 Summer Olympics, as of his elbow tendons had ruptured prior to the qualifier, and with no time for the required surgery, countless injections were unable to produce an adequate result for him to paddle to his abilities. [3]
 |  |  | Total | |
| K1 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 14 |
| Season | Date | Venue | Position | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 6 July 1991 | Augsburg | 3rd | K1 |
| 1992 | 7 June 1992 | Merano | 1st | K1 |
| 1995 | 1 October 1995 | Ocoee | 3rd | K1 |
| 1998 | 2 August 1998 | Wausau | 3rd | K1 |
| 2001 | 5 August 2001 | Prague | 3rd | K1 |
| 2002 | 26 May 2002 | Guangzhou | 3rd | K1 |
| 28 July 2002 | Tacen | 3rd | K1 | |
| 15 September 2002 | Tibagi | 1st | K1 | |
| 2003 | 11 May 2003 | Penrith | 1st | K1 |
| 3 August 2003 | Bratislava | 3rd | K1 | |
| 2004 | 30 May 2004 | Merano | 2nd | K1 |
| 2005 | 27 August 2005 | Kern River | 1st | K1 1 |
| 2006 | 20 August 2006 | Madawaska | 1st | K1 1 |
| 2009 | 3 August 2009 | Kananaskis | 3rd | K1 1 |
On April 25, 2009, Ford married Canadian alpine skier Kelly VanderBeek. They have a son, Cooper. [4]
Michal Martikán is a Slovak slalom canoeist who has been competing at the international level since 1994. In 1996 he became the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for Slovakia since the country gained independence in 1993. In total he won 5 Olympic medals, which is the most among all slalom paddlers. He has also won the World Championship title in the C1 individual category four times.
Richard Munro Fox is a British slalom canoeist who competed for Great Britain from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. He won eleven medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with ten golds and a bronze. Fox also won the overall World Cup title three times and the Euro Cup four times.
Štěpánka Hilgertová is a former Czechoslovak-Czech slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1988 to 2017. Competing in six Summer Olympics, she won two gold medals in the K1 event, earning them in 1996 and 2000.
Jennifer Bongardt is a German slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1998 to 2010.
Elena Kaliská is a retired Slovak slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1988 to 2019. She specialized in the K1 event, which was the only discipline available for women during the vast majority of her career.
David Florence is a retired British slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1999 to 2021. He is the 2013 and 2015 world champion in individual single canoe (C1) and 2013 champion in double canoe (C2), the latter with Richard Hounslow. Florence was the first canoeist since Charles Dussuet, sixty years earlier, to achieve the C1, C2 double at the same World Championships.
Vavřinec Hradilek is a Czech slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2003.
Peter Kauzer is a Slovenian slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 1999.
Alexander Grimm is a German slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2002.
Fabien Lefèvre is a French slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 1998. As a permanent resident of the United States, he has competed for his country of residence since 2013. He represented France until 2011. He won two medals at the Summer Olympics in the K1 event with a silver in 2008 and a bronze in 2004. He has a son called Noe Lefèvre.
Irena Pavelková is a Czech slalom canoeist who competed at the international level from 1990 to 2012.
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Lynn Simpson is a British slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. She won four medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with a gold, a silver, and two bronzes. She also won the World Cup series in three consecutive seasons between 1994 and 1996.
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Jessica Esther "Jess" Fox is a French-born Australian Program and Policy Officer and world and Olympic champion slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2008.
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Mallory Franklin is a British slalom canoeist who has competed internationally since 2009. She competes in both Kayak and Canadian Canoe classes, as well as the Kayak cross discipline.
Joseph Clarke, is a British slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2009, specializing in the K1 (kayak) and KX1 events. He is the 2016 Olympic champion in the K1 event,the 2023 World champion in the same event, and a triple World champion in the kayak cross discipline, and has won multiple medals at World and European Championships. He is the most successful kayak cross competitor at global level in the history of the event.
Daniel Watkins is an Australian slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2011. He is from Grove, Tasmania.
Callum Gilbert is a New Zealand slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2013.
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