Meet Kimberley Woods, world champ Team GB canoeist whose battled mental health issues in pursuit of Paris 2024 dream
KIMBERLEY WOODS is a Team GB canoeist who will be gunning for gold at the Olympics later this month.
The 28-year-old recently won the 2023 World Cup in Kayak Cross – the Olympics’ newest event.
Who is Kimberley Woods?
Kimberley Woods was born in Rugby on September 8, 1995.
She got into canoeing when she was younger and began competing at the international level in 2011.
Since her breakthrough, she has won 13 medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with six golds.
The British slalom canoeist has also won 14 medals at the European Championships.
She qualified to represent Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in the Women’s K1 event where she finished in 10th place.
Woods’ most recent success is her victory at the World Cup in Kayak Cross last year.
Kayak Cross will debut for the first at the Olympics this summer.
Which will see canoeists for the time slalom race each other on the Olympic stage at the same time rather than a time trial.
Speaking on the new event Woods said: “Hectic. Absolutely hectic. That’s what I love so much about it – you never know what is going to happen.
“You will always have the favourites in the race and you know they are very strong contenders.
“But so many things can go wrong. So many things can happen, both in terms of your own plans and other paddlers intruding on them.”
Woods, who pursued canoeing from a young age after watching a video of her aunt – herself a world junior medallist revealed in 2020 that she had overcome depression and self-harm, which she linked to being bullied as a child.
Woods said: “Looking back you can probably track it to my childhood and being bullied, which led to low self-esteem and down the road depression and self-harming.
“It was a cycle, where I had paddling as my escape so when it was going well everything was fine, but if I had an injury and was left alone 24/7 then all of the emotions I’d bottled up would come out and it’d leave me very vulnerable.”
Will Kimberley Woods be competing in the Paris Olympics?
Yes, Woods will be competing in the Paris Olympics.
She will represent Team GB in the Canoe Slalom – as she did in 2021 when she finished 10th.
When will Kimberley Woods be competing in the Paris Olympics?
The Games officially kicks off on Friday, July 26 and culminates on Sunday, August 11.
But the Canoe Slalom will get underway on Saturday, July 27.
The K1 is lined up first, followed by C1 and then the Kayak Cross.
The final for Kayak Cross will commence on Monday, August 5.