20-year-old ‘confident’ for other events after kayak slalom ‘mistakes’

VAIRES-SUR-MARNE, France — Evy Leibfarth made a few ‘mistakes’ in her kayak slalom semifinal race Sunday at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, but in failing to make the finals in her first event at the Paris Olympics, Leibfarth said she feels more prepared to medal in her next two events.

‘The gates are going to be in the same place and for those of you who aren’t familiar with the sport, we don’t get to practice the gates where they are until the day of the race,’ Leibfarth said. ‘So to kind of have that experience already paddling through the gates and just kind of getting a sense for where they are and where the water’s moving, kind of all like the little feeling elements of it, it’s really crucial because even though canoeing’s a lot different, I think it’s a lot smoother, a lot more using the water, kind of feeling it out, you’re still gong on the same rapids and to have that feeling is so important.’

Leibfarth, ranked 19th in the world in kayak slalom, finished 15th in her 22-racer semifinal in a time of 1:09.54. She suffered a 2-second penalty for striking the 19th gate with her paddle, but even without the penalty would have been just short of a qualifying time.

Australia’s Jessica Fox won gold with a time of 50.05 seconds in the 12-person finals. Fox, Australia’s flag bearer and the world’s top-ranked kayak slalom racer, won a silver and two bronze medals in the event at the past three Olympics.

Poland’s Klaudia Zwolinska won silver Sunday, and Great Britain’s Kimberly Woods took bronze.

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Leibfarth, 20, has a grueling schedule at this year’s Olympics, competing in all three slalom events.

Canoe single heats begin Tuesday, with the semifinals and finals on Wednesday, and the first of potentially four straight days of competition in the new Olympic sport of kayak cross is Friday.

Fox and Zwolinska also are in all three events.

‘Doing three events (is) really intense because not only are you out there physically giving your all every single day, it’s also really taxing mentally,’ Leibfarth said. ‘It’s hard to reset after each run and go into each day feeling the same confidence and the same positive, so it’s definitely really exhausting. We’re out here, our runs are 90 seconds, hopefully, but we’re out there for an hour and a half warming up before, another 30 minutes to cool down after so it’s pretty long days.’

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Leibfarth said she felt confident Sunday after a strong performance in Saturday’s qualifying round, where she placed fourth, behind Fox, Zwolinska and France’s Camille Prigent.

‘Today it was a really hard course and I went out there and I gave it my best shot,’ she said. ‘And I did make some mistakes. They changed just a couple moves on the course to make it harder, so there’s one where you have to actually go like backwards through a gate and then get onto a wave and surf it across and I lost a lot of time there. There’s another move that I lost some time at.’

With no event to race Monday, Leibfarth said she planned to give her body and mind a break by walking around the Olympic Village with friends and maybe sketching some portraits.

She said she’s excited for kayak cross, where competitors drop off a raised platform and race through a gated course.

‘It’s a lot of just kind of being aware of your surroundings, aware of where the other girls are and you’ve got to really want it cause I mean, it’s kind of a contact sport so you’ve got to be fricking going for it,’ she said.

And she said feels ‘really confident’ in canoe slalom.

‘My goal is to just go out there and have a run that I’m proud of,’ she said. ‘Not going to share my goals, but I’m feeling good about it.’