Evy Leibfarth Overcomes Adversity And An Unforgiving White Water Rapids Course, Paddling To A Canoe Singles Bronze Medal

VAIRES-SUR-MARNCE, France — Evy Leibfarth paddled swiftly and smoothly through 23 gates to win an Olympic bronze medal in the women’s canoe singles final. Emotions certainly ran high as the 20-year-old achieved her first Olympic medal.

“It’s so crazy, I didn’t really think it would happen for me, I guess – it’s always been such a big goal, but it seems crazy to be an Olympic medalist,” Leibfarth said, both laughing and holding back tears at the same time. “I’m just so happy.”

And talk about resilience. The young, multi-talented white water paddler rebounded like a competitor years beyond her age, after missing the kayak singles final three days earlier, in addition to narrowly advancing into the C-1 final. She advanced from the semifinal earlier on Wednesday, qualifying 12th among the 12 finalists, by 1.26 seconds.

It was a tense and emotional roller coaster ride for the Bryson City, North Carolina native after her run of 1:09.95, in which she incurred one two-second penalty, nipping upstream gate 14. She watched and waited as eleven more athletes navigated the swirling rapids and eddies of the Vaire-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium unforgiving whitewater course.

“I knew I had that good feeling on the water, where I was out there enjoying the moment, and I really felt like I was going to do that, but when I finished I didn’t think it was going to be a medal,” an emotional Leibfarth said. “Everyone here is such amazing paddlers and it was a very hard course out there.”

Top canoeists Mallory Franklin (GBR), the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 silver medalist, Miren Lazkano (ESP) and Monica Doria Vilarrublea (AND), were among those who struggled on the churning rapids and exceedingly difficult course set, incurring multiple penalties and collectively failing to knock Leibfarth off the medal podium.

Elena Lilik (GER) and whitewater canoe and kayak legend Jessica Fox, the eventual gold medalist, delivered superb runs, unlike the others, and surpassed Leibfarth. The final competitor with a chance to prevent Leibfarth from going home with bronze, was top qualifier Gabriela Satkova (CZE).

Satkova started her run poorly, knocking the second gate and never recovered. The Czech ultimately plummeted to seventh and the bronze medal belonged to Leibfarth. It was a thrilling, dramatic and perhaps unexpected ascent up into the medals.

“It’s so hard when all of the competitors are your friends – I want everyone to do well,” the North Carolina athlete said. “It was just a crazy feeling to know that I could get a medal and I started ugly crying at the bottom (of the course).

Leibfarth elaborated on her run on the 23-gate course set, which included six upstream red gates. She said it was far from clean, considering an early mishap and the two-second penalty further down the course.

“I didn’t have a perfect run at all – I think I just fixed my mistakes. I tried to go into the first rapids lefty and I had to, I call it ‘panning switch to the right side’ because I missed the move I was going for,” Leibfarth said. “All the way down there were these little fixes that I had to make, but I kept my focus in front of me and I’m really proud of myself for being able to do that.

“It’s one of the hardest courses that I’ve ever paddled,” said the 20-year-old, whose best world championship finish in C-1 was fourth in Spain, in 2019. “It takes so much precision, just the slightest edge in one direction and you’re off the wave.”

Leibfarth stood on the podium alongside her idol Jessica Fox, 30, who captured both her second gold medal of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and defended her Olympic title as C-1 champion from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Elena Lilik of Germany took silver.

The American finished 8.89 seconds behind Fox’s stellar, mistake free run. It was a surreal moment for Leibfarth to stand next to the Aussie GOAT of the sport on the medals podium.

Leibfarth also addressed bouncing back from the highly disappointing showing in kayak singles on Sunday.

“A lot of it is just taking some time for yourself and appreciating all of the little things,” she said. “I didn’t have the race in kayak I wanted, but I was able to learn from kayak and take it into canoe.”

Leibfarth shared the special moments surrounding her breakthrough performance with her family, in attendance at the Olympic whitewater venue, east of Paris.

“I’m able to be here with my family, my Dad is my coach, and my Mom is here – and all of my best friends, it’s so special. Everyone who has been part of this journey is here for this moment. It’s not just my medal, it’s everybody’s medal.”

Evy’s father and coach Lee Leibfarth was elated to share the father and daughter moment together in France.

“I was a little more nervous than when I was out there as an athlete. It was incredible to see Evy out there today. To see her start at the beginning of finals, have to wait 11 boats and get on the podium - I couldn’t be more proud,” Leibfarth said. “The course was super challenging and it came down to who made the fewest mistakes.

“Evy did a great job keeping it together on a very difficult course,” he said.

Leibfarth’s unprecedented three-event quest for a U.S. canoe slalom athlete, continues with the debut of Olympic kayak cross on Friday, August 2. The immensely talented paddler will pursue Olympic medal number two, but as always, her idol Fox, will be exceedingly tough to beat.

Stranger things have happened on white water rapids – Leibfarth proved that to the world today.