For the last three years, Canada’s kayak team has been involved in secret research, the details of which they are reluctant to reveal.

They’ve been undergoing multiple tests with a single goal: to go faster at the Rio Olympics. And they think they’ve cracked the code.

Now, several of Canada’s athletes will be going into the Games with an individually-customized set of equipment, all carefully tested in state-of-the-art facilities at the National Research Council in Ottawa and St. John’s.

Research like this is how Canada’s athletes remain competitive, according to Canoe Kayak Canada.

“This is the type of science the leading countries have been bringing to the sport for years,” said the agency’s high performance director, Scott Logan. “There are strict rules set out by the international federation and in addition we have our own ethical standards we must adhere to.”

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“Playing within the rules, it’s a race between countries to find a competitive advantage.” Tweet This

“They’re going so much faster,” said kayak coach Frédéric Jobin. Although it’s just fractions of a second, that tiny improvement can be hugely important, he said.

“It’s a very small, small change but that can make a big difference at the Olympics because the top five guys, the top five girls, it’s only within a range of like tenths of a second.

“It could make a difference between a medal or no medal.” Tweet This

Towing tank

Kayakers face a unique problem: given that it’s an outdoor sport, how do you know whether it’s your new paddle that’s helping you go faster, or that there’s less wind that day?

NRC researchers set out to answer that question. “We’re locking down as many variables as possible, which is when you’re conducting an experiment what you always want to do,” said Jonathan Power, research council officer, marine systems at the NRC.

His team operates a “towing tank” in St. John’s, NL: a 200-metre long pool, usually used to test ships, that provides a completely controlled environment and can measure the kayak’s performance.

Researchers watch high-speed footage of a Canadian kayaker at the National Research Council’s towing tank in St. John’s, NL. Courtesy, National Research Council

Athletes were lowered into the tank, and after a warmup, would do a full-speed paddle down the tank. Then, they’d alter their equipment: trying out a longer paddle, or changing the angle of their seat, to see if that helped improve their time.

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“For me what I found in the tow tank made a big difference,” said Émilie Fournel, who will be competing in the 500-metre kayak sprint in Rio.

“I went there to find the optimal length of paddle, and I did,” she said. Now, with a longer paddle, she feels her performance is much-improved. “It made a big difference in my technique. I was able to be more powerful and more relaxed and every single stroke more efficient. These tiny, tiny little differences every stroke, when you give over 200 strokes in a race, it makes a big difference in the end.”

Wind tunnel

World champion Canadian kayaker Mark de Jonge did the tests in the towing tank, and some additional testing in a wind tunnel in Ottawa. The wind tunnel helped in two ways, according to NRC research officer Annick d’Auteuil: they could test the relative drag of different clothing, equipment or things like how they held the paddle.

Kayaker Mark de Jonge is blasted with air in the NRC’s wind tunnel in Ottawa. Courtesy, National Research Council

And, researchers could also recreate the conditions that athletes will likely face in Rio.

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“In this case, for kayak, they will be on a lake that is known in Rio. I think it’s a lagoon. And we know from statistics of wind that are measured over there in the last 50 years, what is the main wind direction for different times of the day, for example,” said d’Auteuil. So, they can guess what the most likely wind conditions will be, on that day in August, at that time of day, and on that particular lake.

“With that information we can in the wind tunnel make sure that we optimize the drag reduction for the proper wind direction and wind amplitude that they will be racing at.”

Concrete results

Jobin believes that the testing has really helped many of the athletes he coaches perform at their best.

“For Mark de Jonge as an example, because Mark is the world champion, so what we found out for Mark it’s a longer paddle is better, by much. It’s probably the biggest difference that helped us: the length of his paddle,” he said. A longer paddle means fewer, but more powerful strokes – helping the athlete to efficiently conserve energy over the race and make every stroke count, though not everyone is strong or tall enough to handle the extra leverage.

“Also, the seat position, the seat height. So now he’s sitting higher in his boat, and also that’s another component that’s really helped us to make him faster. (…) And that new boat, finally we found out it was faster. So the decision for us was easy. Mark started to use that new boat.”

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De Jonge is going about 0.2 seconds faster now, said Jobin, which he believes has directly translated into gold medals. “That’s why he was double-world champion, 2014 and 2015.”

A Canadian kayaker paddling in the NRC’s tow tank in St. John’s, NL. Courtesy, National Research Council

The athletes themselves are going to Rio with extra confidence too, now that they have science backing them up.

“I found out that most of the things that I am doing, it’s right,” said first-time Olympian Andréanne Langlois. “We put the paddle longer, it didn’t work for me. We angled the seat, it didn’t work for me. The only thing that worked for me was the old thing that I was doing in my good old days.”

“If you don’t test it, you don’t know. But now I know and it’s beautiful because I go as fast as I can now and I know it’s the right way to go.” Tweet This