The World of Kayak Polo
History
The birthplace and time of modern kayak polo traces back to Duisberg, Germany in 1987. This makes the sport only a few decades old! The International Canoe Federation (ICF) finalized the rules in 1990 and the inaugural ICF World Canoe Polo Championships was held at Sheffield, England in 1994, with eighteen competing countries.
The countries and their final placing were, for the men: 1 Australia, 2 Germany, 3 Great Britain, 4 Netherlands, 5 France, 6 Belgium, 7 Ireland, 8 Hungary, 9 Italy, 10 New Zealand, 11 Chinese Taipei, 12 South Africa, 13 Finland, 14 Austria, 15 Japan, 16 Brazil, 17 Portugal, and 18 Canada. The United States had not yet made any presence in the sport.
Competitions
There are two main, official, international events in kayak polo: World Championships and World Games.
World Games is organized by the Olympic Committee and takes place every four years. Sports in the World Games are periodically being reviewed for entrance into the Olympic Games. The way teams are selected is that the Olympic Committee invites the top seven teams from World Championships, with the host country being automatically selected as the eighth.
World Championships is organized by the ICF and takes place every two years. The top 24 teams in the world are invited and any teams that place in the top twelve are automatically re-invited to the following World Championship. The remaining teams have to continuously re-qualify by competing in regional tournaments, or hope to obtain a Wild Card invite.
Team USA
The United States first entered the World Championships in 1998. Since joining, the USA has been invited to almost every World Championship competition. Clubs from across the country have all sent players to participate on the National Team. With each subsequent tournament, the United States continues to improve upon its coaching and selection process. Although the United States has never placed highly in these events, the hope is that as the player pool increases and the sport grows in popularity the USA will eventually be more competitive on the international level.
Richmond Rapids’ International Aspirations
Richmond Rapids strives to increase the performance of the USA on the international stage. We hope to do this by greatly increasing the player pool, introducing players at younger ages, connecting the East Coast teams together to train competitively and regularly, and even help other clubs get started in the future.
