How canoe/kayak works at the Olympic Games:

Flatwater competition:

- canoe-kayak flatwater Olympic events are held on a river or lake over a straight course of either 200m or 1000m

- Fields vary from class to class as do the number of races to make the final but each has heats, repechages and/or semi-finals, and finals

- Kayak competitors sit in their boat and have a double-sided paddle while canoeists kneel and use a single-headed paddle

Slalom/whitewater competition:

- there are four classes - men's K1, C1 and C2 and women's K1 - held on a course of artificial rapids

- competitors must pass through 18 to 20 gates in numerical order through a series of downstream and upstream gates

- Whitewater racers sustain a two-second penalty for touching gates with their body, boat, or paddle

- The paddler's head must cross between each gate, the imaginary gate line between each set of poles

- Gates negotiated in the wrong direction including upside down and missed gates incur a 50-second penalty

- K1 paddlers have two heats and the top 15 (on best single runs) go through to the semi-final. The top 10 from the one-run semi-final go through to the cut-throat Olympic final