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ANCIENT ORIGINS
SPORT BORN
OUT OF THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
The need to travel and the
struggle for survival among North and South American
Indians and Eskimos gave rise to the canoe and
kayak. The Tlinget and Haida people who lived
on the west coast of what is now Canada and northern
United States developed the dugout canoe by hollowing
out a tree trunk. Some vessels were large enough
to carry about 60 people. Similar vessels were
also used in Amazonia and on Lake Titicaca in
South America.
Their lives,
however, were relatively simple compared with
those of Indian tribes who had to tackle waterfalls,
take their boats across country and navigate
the Arctic ice-pack in search of fish and porpoises
for food and fuel. The tribes of inland America
developed a craft that is the closest to the
racing canoes of today; wooden frames were covered
with bark shells, which were then sealed
with burning pitch. The Inuits and further north
the Eskimos, both constrained by the meagre
resources of their bleak environment, used different
materials, binding together driftwood and whalebone
which would then be covered with sea-lion skin
and sealed with whale fat.
Those early origins of
the sport were celebrated in 1984 when Alwyn
Morris, along with Hugh Fisher, his Canadian teammate, wore an eagle's feather on the medal
rostrum when receiving his gold medal for the
Kayak pairs, 1,000 metres. Morris was a Mohawk Indian
from the Caughawaga reserve in Quebec and wore
the decorated feather to symbolise the sharing
of his victory with all native Americans.
Canoes and similar vessels
were also used by fishing communities in Europe
and Asia but it was not until the 19th century
that they started to be considered in terms
of pleasure and leisure. The man who could be
said to have popularised canoeing was John MacGregor, an English barrister.
He developed a boat that
he named "Rob Roy" and caught the public's imagination
in a series of books and lecture tours in which
he discussed his experiences while paddling
his craft along the rivers and lakes of Europe
between 1845 and 1869. The Rob Roy canoe is
still popular today.
MacGregor founded the Royal
Canoe Club in 1866 and a year later clinker-built
canoes were raced in the club's first regatta.
Across the world, time had not stood still and
enthusiasts had also adopted the Indian canoe
as a vessel of leisure, the use of bark in their
design giving rise to the term "Canadian canoe",
which became more common than the Rob Roy.
The American Canoe Association was formed in
1870 and global competition of sorts became
possible.
In 1907, Alfred Heurich,
of Germany, developed the faltboot, German for
folding canoe, a lightweight portable vessel
that helped to popularise the sport in Europe.
Eastern Germans later developed a kayak with
a rigid frame that would become the blueprint
for the competition model.
The first world championships
were held in 1930, six years after the sport
was demonstrated at the Paris Games and six
years before it became an Olympic sport in Berlin.
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