20-year-old athlete punches her ticket to Paris, set to compete in her second Olympic games
After a weekend of intense competition at Montgomery Whitewater, one athlete has punched her ticket to Paris 2024.
At just 20 years old, this will be Evy Leibfarth's second time competing in the Olympic Games.
After flying through the course on her canoe, Leibfarth crossed the finish line, celebrating alongside her mom and her dad, who doubles as her coach.
Leibfarth said in that moment, it set in that she'd be paddling in Paris.
"It was one of those really special moments and I'm so happy that my family was there to celebrate with me," Leibfarth said.
A touching moment to celebrate an achievement her father Lee said they've been working toward for years.
"When she was eight years old, this became a goal for her to go to the Olympics and try to win a medal," he said. "And so to kind of secure her spot in Paris was pretty remarkable."
Leibfarth has been making waves in the sport for a while now.
At age 16, she was the youngest Olympian in Tokyo competing in Canoe and Kayak Sport.
She took online classes in high school so she could train and is now in college while balancing being an Olympian. As her father explains, she's currently deferring a couple semesters to focus on training.
"She's been training basically six days a week for the last three years." Her father said. "Basically ever since Tokyo, she's been really working hard at it. Typically, she'll do a kayak workout in the morning, during the midday, she's going to go to the gym and do some type of strength workouts and then try to get on the water again in the afternoon."
Countless days in the gym and on the water, but Leibfarth wouldn't have it any other way.
She said she's looking forward to a long future in the sport she loves.
"A lot of the athletes who medal at the Olympics are 28, 29, 30," Leibfarth said. "So I'd say I have a lot more time in the sport, but I'm just excited to keep enjoying the journey and do it for as long as I feel this love for it and the drive."
With today's win, Leibfarth knows she'll be in the C1W, or Canoe Slalom women's event in the Olympics, but she could also be competing in two other categories, Kayak Slalom and a sport that's new to The Games, Kayak Cross.
She'll know for sure in about two weeks, as these athletes are now heading to Oklahoma City for the final round of these trials.
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