Canoe sprint paddlers Vincent and Mackenzie blaze through heat with Olympic best

It was a record-setting day for Canada on the water as the canoe/kayak sprint competition got underway at Paris 2024.

Tokyo 2020 medallist Katie Vincent is looking to upgrade the shade after she earned a bronze in the women’s C-2 500m at the last Olympic Games with the now-retired Laurence Vincent Lapointe.

With her new partner, 22-year-old Sloan Mackenzie of Halifax, the pair raced to first in their heat with a new OIympic Best time of 1 minute 54.46 seconds.

“It was incredible,” said Vincent. “I know my family is in the stands and so is Sloan’s. Having that support behind us helps a lot.

“Tokyo was a little quieter, maybe a little lonelier. Having everybody here, I think we are feeling that a little in the water.”

The win automatically qualified them for the semifinal round which will take place on Friday.

Racing in the second heat in a field that included rival Spain, Canada turned it on at the end. Throughout the first half of the race, the Spanish boat was about a half-length ahead of Mackenzie and Vincent, until the Canadians took over at the 100-metre mark, and crossed the finish line with the Olympic Best time.

“That last 150 (metres), when you have that crowd, and the pride of being Canadian, helps out on the water,” said Vincent.

The pair have had tremendous success in two-woman canoe competition over the last couple of years. They took home bronze at the 2023 ICF World Championships, gold at Santiago 2023, and silver most recently at a World Cup event in Szeged, Hungary.

“The first one for me is always a little bit of a warm-up. The lactic builds, and I get a little queasy at the end, but Sloan gets queasy at the start, so we balance each other out,” Vincent of their opening race of the Games. “She is nervous before, and I am a little sick after, but it is just the nerves. It’s the Olympics.”

Vincent and Mackenzie weren’t the only Canadian paddlers in action, though.

In the men’s K-2 500m, Pierre-Luc Poulin and Simon McTavish had to go through a quarterfinal after their opening heat, but finished third in their group to advance to the semifinals. It was the same story in the women’s K-2 500m as Courtney Stott and Natalie Davison couldn’t get the automatic advancement from the heats, but finished fourth in their quarterfinal to move onto the semis. Both of those events resume on Friday.

In the men’s K-4 500m, Canada finished fourth in their quarterfinal to earn a spot in the semifinals. Australia set an Olympic Best time of 1:19.39 in that heat.

Canada’s women’s K-4 500m crew missed out on direct advancement to the final and will have to race in a semifinal. The K-4 events resume on Thursday.