The Greatest Paddling Athletes at the Olympic Games
Who is the greatest Canoe and Kayak Athletes of all time based on Olympic Games performances? We have used a weighted total medal count of each male and female Canoeing athlete from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The best all-time performing canoeing athlete at the Olympic Games is German Birgit Fischer who won 8 gold medals and 4 silver in a career spanning 1980–2004. The top male is Gert Fredriksson of Sweden with six gold medals in a stellar career on the water. See the table below to see how other athletes ranked. Listed is only athletes with four or more gold medals. Also of note is Katalin Kovács with three gold and five silver.
See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.
Top Olympic Games Paddlers
Here are the top-ranked athletes from the sport of Canoeing and Kayak for performances at all Olympiads, using the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System to order the athletes, awarding points for both gold (6 points) and other medals (silver 2 pts, bronze 1 pt).
Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Canoeing and Kayak at the Olympic Games (including 2021)
| rank | name | country | gender | Gold | Silver | Bronze | total medals |
rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birgit Fischer | Germany | F | 8 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 56 |
| 2 | Gert Fredriksson | Sweden | M | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 39 |
| 3 | Danuta Kozák | Hungary | F | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 32 |
| 4 | Lisa Carrington | New Zealand | F | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 31 |
| 4 | Ivan Patzaichin | Romania | M | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 30 |
| 6 | Katrin Wagner-Augustin | Germany | F | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 27 |
| 7 | Ian Ferguson | New Zealand | M | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 26 |
Related Pages
- List of the best athlete from each Olympic sport
- The greatest ever Olympic athlete
- About Olympic Medal Ranking Systems
- medal tables from all Olympic Games
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