The whitewater rapids that will challenge the world’s best canoeists during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games flowed through the course in Deodoro Olympic Park for the first time on Tuesday (29 September). The Whitewater Stadium, which will host the canoe slalom events next year, was officially unveiled by Rio mayor Eduardo Paes at an event for the media.  

“This sporting facility was perhaps the biggest challenge of the Olympic Games and today we can confirm that it has been delivered,” said Paes. “As everyone can see, this construction is the most complicated in Deodoro. It is with great happiness that today we see the course totally ready.”

The course, which uses a series of pumps and man-made obstacles to simulate a natural river, will be put to the test by top-level canoeists at the Rio 2016 test event between 26 and 29 November, when about 250 athletes from 40 countries are expected to compete. While the course itself is complete, work continues on the surrounding features, with the city government saying the venue is 85 per cent finished. Temporary seating for 8,424 people will be installed before the Games.

Three of the pumps that were switched for the presentation on Tuesday (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

Development of the venue included period of innovative model testing at Prague’s Czech Technical University, and the International Canoe Federation expressed their satisfaction with the venue during a visit earlier this year.

Along with the BMX and mountain bike venues, the canoe slalom course forms part of the X-Park, a centre for youth-targeted ‘extreme’ sports that will leave an important social legacy to the local community after the Games. The BMX and mountain bike test events will take place in October, and Paes said he hoped that once the canoe slalom construction works and test event had been completed, it would be possible to open the area to the public. The city government will pass the venue into the care of the Rio 2016 organising committee in April 2016.