Just north of the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City sits Riversport's canoe slalom facility. Two channels fork around a grassy hill, filled with whitecapped greenish water rushing down a slope.
This weekend, those channels were also full of canoeists and kayakers competing in the International Canoe Federation's world ranking race. More than 150 competitors from 23 countries registered for the events.
Among them was Casey Eichfield, an American canoeist and four-time Olympian. Before he headed down the course, he watched his fellow competitors descend the hill of whitewater.
Eichfield pointed out the striped poles strung above the rapids.
"The green and white ones, we go downstream with the current through," he explained. "The red ones we go upstream through, and you'll see those more on the sides of the river. Fastest time wins."
Competitors receive a two-second penalty for touching the gate and a 50-second penalty for missing a gate entirely. They fight against the water to direct their craft.
For many international competitors, this was their first time at Riversport, where they also fought against strong Oklahoma winds.
"The water here is very challenging," Eichfield said. "It's very pushy. It's very strong. So you have to be engaged all the time, constantly pulling. So that's one of the things that I've heard a lot of the athletes say here is that they're very tired after workouts, after race runs, because it's just a lot of work."
This weekend's event gave Oklahoma City residents a taste of international competition. Eichfield says it also gave international competitors a taste of OKC.
"It falls really well into kind of the like stereotypical idea of what America is for the internationals," Eichfield said. "They're all excited to rent big trucks and to go to shooting ranges and to try barbecue."
Riversport's facility is one of just three high-level competition canoe slalom courses in the country; the others are in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montgomery, Alabama. Across the world, there are only a few dozen facilities of this caliber.
Many of this weekend's competitors will be back at Riversport in July for the World Championships, and perhaps for the 2028 Olympic Games.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
