VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Slalom Canoeist Evy Leibfarth Uses Visualization At Paris Olympics

Evy Leibfarth, a rising star in the U.S. Olympic team, is gearing up for the 2024 Paris Olympics with a renewed focus and a deeper appreciation for her sport. Specializing in canoe slalom, a sport she has been involved in since she was a toddler, Leibfarth’s journey is as much about personal growth as it is about athletic achievement.

Leibfarth’s involvement in canoe slalom began early, thanks to her parents’ passion for the sport. “My parents met kayaking, and my dad was actually a coach for the national team before I was born. So I started kayaking when I was like two or three years old. So I’ve pretty much been doing it my whole life and, you know, as I got older I just really fell in love with it,” she shared.

Training for an Olympic sport is no small feat, and Leibfarth’s regimen reflects her dedication. “My typical training days definitely vary a lot depending on what time of the season it is or if I’m on a training camp or not. Most of the year, I’m not in the U.S., I’m somewhere abroad on a course. Typically, I do a workout in the morning on the whitewater and then I either go to the gym or go for a run. In the afternoon, I go back on the white water, so usually like three workouts a day,” she explained.

Leibfarth, who competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at just 17 years old, has learned significant life lessons throughout her Olympic journey. “Honestly, it’s not that deep. I used to put so much pressure on every individual competition and how my seasons would go. I’ve really learned to appreciate the journey as an overall thing and just the progress that I make. One of my favorite quotes is ‘the time will pass anyways’ because it will, and you may as well just start trying your hardest now so that in 10 years you’re going to be great at something. Or even if you’re not, you can appreciate that journey that you tried really hard to get there. So I’m just trusting in my training and excited about the future,” she reflected.

When it comes to preparing mentally for competition, visualization plays a crucial role for Leibfarth. “I’d say the biggest thing that I do for my sport is visualizing. A lot of people don’t know this about canoe slalom, but we don’t actually get to practice where the gates are before the race. We get to see from the side and watch someone do it as a demonstration, but we don’t actually get to do it until it’s race day. So we have to visualize ourselves going through all 24 gates. I have a really bad memory, so it’s really hard for me to remember exactly where to go and what strokes to take. Being able to visualize that over and over again in my head has been so helpful,” she said.

Besides visualizing, Leibfarth uses different methods to handle stress and stay focused. “For managing stress, I use a lot of breathing techniques and focus on things that I can control rather than how other people do, what the weather’s going to do, and all these other uncontrollables which are present in every sport,” she noted.