NEWS

Evy Leibfarth, Davidson College class of 2025, on the podium after receiving her bronze medal in the Women’s Canoe Slalom. (screenshot from NBC/Peacock broadcast)

If you haven’t been watching the Olympics, this article might not be of interest to you. Hopefully, you will keep reading.

While there has been a lot of attention being paid to Steph Curry making his Olympic debut on the Men’s Basketball team, there is another Wildcat competing in Paris. Perhaps you read the press release published in News of Davidson on July 21. The American Canoe Association joined the U.S. Olympic Committee in naming the two members of the Team USA canoe/kayak athletes: Davidson College student Evy Leibfarth ’25 and Casey Eichfeld.

And Evy Leibfarth was the first Wildcat to stand on the podium at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

In her earlier event, the kayak slalom, Evy had a special set of spectators. Her former professor, David Wessner, and his wife, Connie, were there to cheer her on. David said, “Seeing the Opening Ceremony and a couple of Olympic events was amazing. Actually knowing one of the competitors made it even more special. I’ve been following Evy’s career since she was in my class a couple years ago. Watching her compete on the world stage was a real treat.”

The Wessners wound up right next to Team USA’s boat during the opening ceremonies, which carried Davidson College alumni, Steph and Evy.

Connie said “seeing the horse appear in the mist galloping up the Seine was mesmerizing. Everything that happened during the opening ceremonies was incredibly moving, beyond inspiring to watch.”

Evy’s events are taking place at the Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium. The facility is located about 45 minutes to the east of downtown Paris and is hosting Olympic and Paralympic events including: Canoe Slalom, Kayak Slalom, Kayak Cross, and rowing events. According to the venue website, it is the only facility of its kind in Europe and was completed in 2019.

Evy at the start of the finals run of Canoe Slalom. (screenshot from NBC/Peacock coverage)

Following Evy’s Olympics journey, it is easy to be struck by the solo nature of her sport. In the midst of watching the joys of the team victories, hers is an incredibly individual sport. Evy is the only woman canoeist/kayaker, with her lone “teammate,” Casey Eichfield, on the men’s side of the competition.

One layperson’s observation: the canoes used in Olympic competition don’t look like your average canoe. Instead, they look more like kayaks. The “brief overview” on the Paris 2024 Olympics website provides the following: “Canoe and kayak races feature on the Olympic Games programme, each with its own specific rules. Canoeists kneel in the boat and use a single-blade paddle on one side at a time, whereas kayakers are seated and use a double-bladed paddle.”

The athletes paddle down the course and must go through the green gates going downstream. They must reverse direction and paddle upstream to go through the red gates. The 23 “gates” in this case are two poles that hang down vertically. If a competitor misses a gate, they are penalized 50 seconds, virtually ensuring finishing at the bottom of the competition. They are penalized two seconds if they touch one of the poles. The time penalties are added to their time at the end of their race.

Wednesday’s semifinal and final runs in the Canoe slalom, followed preliminary heats on Tuesday.

Evy finished in twelfth place in the semifinals, which earned her the final spot in the finals. The time between twelfth and thirteenth was 1.26 seconds. Being twelfth of twelve meant that Evy would be the first competitor in the finals.

She made the run down the course in 107.95 seconds. A 2-second penalty meant that her final, adjusted time was 109.95. Since her run was the first, it was automatically the fastest.

Broadcasters noted that with the top run, she took her place in the “kiss and cry” room, an outdoor venue with three chairs. The athletes with the top three run times stay in those seats until they are bumped, if they are bumped, by a competitor earning a faster time on the course.

So, Evy sat on a chair in the designated space for the top three competitors. She sat there as all eleven fellow canoeists paddled down the course. Each competitor behind her had finished faster than she did in the semi-finals.

She started in the top chair in the middle of three seats, and she kept that seat until the sixth canoeist, German Elana Lilik had a faster run on the course. With that, Evy switched seats, but she still had one of the three seats representing the medals that would be awarded.

Evy on the left in the “kiss and cry” room watching other competitors come down the course. (screenshot from NBC/Peacock coverage)

There were still six more competitors to come down the course. Next came Mallory Franklin from Great Britain, but she failed to earn a seat. Then it was time for Ana Satila from Brazil, but no seat for her either. With each run completed, the television cameras showed the three competitors in the “kiss and cry” seats.

The ninth canoeist was Slovenian Eva Alina Hocevar who failed to earn a seat. The tenth competitor was Monica Doria Vilarrubla who had problems on the course early on, and she didn’t recover. With that, Evy was still in the silver medal seat with the top two semifinalists’ runs to go.

The next to last competitor was Jessica Fox representing Australia, the reigning world champion and five-time Olympic medalist, winning the gold medal two days ago in the Kayak Slalom. Fox’s mother was a Bronze Medalist (France) in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and her father was a world champion who just missed the Olympic podium in his career.

Fox did not disappoint. The French-born Australian had an amazing run, setting the best time by nearly five seconds. A subsequently assessed 2-second penalty did not displace Fox from the top spot.

Evy moved to the bronze medal seat, with one competitor remaining to come down the course.

With that, Czechoslovakian canoeist Gabriela Satkova started down the course. Having run the fastest time in the semi-finals, she would be the last competitor in the race. Satkova had problems at the top of the course, and she couldn’t overcome the time deficit. When she had a major problem, the cameras captured all three competitors in the hot seats, gasping. And when the final time was posted for Satkova, the realization seemed to finally set in for Evy – she was an Olympic medalist.

Thankfully, coverage on Peacock not only included the race, but also the medal presentation ceremony which was termed the “Victory Ceremony.”

An aerial shot of the venue before the Victory Ceremony. (screenshot from NBC/Peacock coverage)

The three athletes walked out and stood behind their respective blocks of the podium. Australian Jessica Fox took her place behind the top gold medal spot, German Elena Lilik behind the silver medal spot, and Evy Leibfarth took her place behind the bronze medal spot. A large set of Olympic rings was on a blue background behind them.

Presenting the medals was IOC Executive Board Member Mr. Ivo Ferriani, joined by former Olympic Canoeing Silver Medalist and International Canoe Federation Board Member Ms. Danielle Woodward from Australia. While Ferriani put the medals around the necks of the athletes, Woodward handed each athlete a long narrow box. According to the Olympics website, each medalist is also receiving an official 2024 Paris Olympics poster designed by artist Ugo Gattoni. A post on Instagram says that the artist spent four months and roughly 2,000 hours creating the poster for the Olympics and Paralympic Games in Paris.

Evy received her medal first, then Lilik, and then Fox. With Fox’s presentation came the playing of the Australian national anthem. As the camera panned back, it showed all three flags being raised.

For the first time in 20 years, the Stars and Stripes were raised at the conclusion of a women’s canoe single event. The sport, which premiered at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, has only had two previous U.S. medalists. Evy is the third.

The Team USA website shared the following quote from Evy: “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.” The full article can be found here.

An Olympic official handed Evy a cell phone to take a selfie with her fellow medalists. (screenshot from NBC/Peacock coverage)

Evy isn’t done yet. She will be competing in the Kayak Cross competition. The sport is debuting at these Olympic games. The sport looks pretty crazy. If the kayakers fighting the water on a solo run down the course isn’t enough, Kayak Cross will feature four kayakers dropping off a platform into the course at one time. They will battle down the course, bumping and jostling along the way. Planet Canoe shared this video on YouTube to introduce the sport to viewers.

On more than one occasion, the commentators highlighted that after her amazing medal-winning performance in Paris, Leibfarth will have the next Olympic Games in her home country. While the 2028 games will be held in Los Angeles, the canoe and kayak events will be held in Oklahoma City. The LA28 Committee announced in June that the RiverSport Rapids Canoe Slalom Center will be the venue for those events.

If you want to keep up with Evy, you can do it on her website “Go Evy.” Of note, as of publication, her site has not been updated with Olympic information.

Oh, and the older Davidson Wildcat in the Olympics is still aiming for gold. Steph Curry and the Men’s Basketball team defeated South Sudan on Wednesday. Team USA won by 17 points with a 103-86 victory. The two teams had met in a pre-Olympics “showcase” game that finished with a razor-thin USA 101-100 victory.

An album of screenshots from NBC/Peacock coverage can be found here.