2012 London Olympics Freestyle Kayaking

You may have not noticed but it wasn't just slalom kayakers tearing it up at the 2012 London Olympics. Freestyle kayakers styled it after races and wowed the crowd.

The lucky few who were honored to be selected for this were James Bebbington (GBR), Claire O’hara (GBR), Motoko Ishida (JPN), Juma Kilakwani (UGD), Dane Jackson (USA) and Courtney Kerin (NZL). These great athletes got to show the world what the sport of freestyle kayak is all about. 

While Freestyle kayaking in not an Olympic discipline, it is encouraging that these athletes were invited to perform in front of the crowds at the Lee Valley White Water Course at the Olympic Slalom Canoe Event. Hopefully this will one day be an accepted Olmpic sport and we can cheer on our favorites while they go for gold!

Check out http://www.kokatat.com/blog/2012/08/freestyle-kayaking-at-the-london-2012-olympics and http://www.sportscene.tv/whitewater/freestyle/news/freestyle-kayaking-at-the-london-2012-olympics for more info.

Also, here is a video of an interview with the athletes and another kinda lame fan-shot video of the freestylers in action. I have not found any more video online actually showing the action and neglected to record it when I saw it on TV but I'll update this if I come across any.