Help me get to World Championships
Donation protected
Hello, I am Alden Henrie, an American athlete in the Olympic discipline of canoe slalom racing. To be more specific, I am a member of the United States Junior National Team in the C1 Men Junior category. I have dedicated more than half of my life towards training and racing in canoe slalom. I can confidently say this sport pulsates rapidly through my veins.
If one is not familiar with canoe slalom, this sport seems basic on its face. The sport was created with inspiration from slalom skiing. A canoe slalom course is between two hundred fifty and four hundred meters long and has anywhere from eighteen to twenty-five gates suspended over a river channel. The gates must be run in numerical order, in the correct direction, and without being touched, or else time penalties will be incurred by the paddler and subsequently added on to the final time.
That sounds pretty simple. However, canoe slalom racing is incredibly difficult once one adds whitewater rapids into the equation. High-level slalom races take place on rapids that most people would never dream of navigating a kayak or canoe through. A Chinese study conducted after the Beijing Olympics compared the difficulty of canoe slalom racing to playing golf during an earthquake while trying to hit a hole in one under a stopwatch. Perfection is basically impossible in this sport - the one who is closest to perfection is generally the one who ultimately emerges victorious over the competition.
Racing at the ICF Junior/U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia last year with the United States Junior National Team is certainly my career highlight, where I finished thirty-seventh and as the second-best boat from the United States in my category. This year, my aim is to have a much higher finishing position when I go back to World Championships this summer in Ivrea, Italy.
I've earned the honor of representing the United States at the Junior World Championships. However, I cannot do this alone. Overseas travel is not cheap. Although this is an Olympic sport, athletes pay out of pocket.
I set a goal of $5,000 primarily to cover the costs of the airline tickets , housing and coaching fees with the team, and to cover road-tripping costs as I plan on traveling and racing in as many places as I can before I must return to start my senior year of high school. Although my mother is my biggest supporter and I help where I can, we currently lack the resources to pull this kind of money together ourselves.
I am currently in Europe and posting to FaceBook when I can. WiFi islands are elusive.
Please help me meet my goal!
If one is not familiar with canoe slalom, this sport seems basic on its face. The sport was created with inspiration from slalom skiing. A canoe slalom course is between two hundred fifty and four hundred meters long and has anywhere from eighteen to twenty-five gates suspended over a river channel. The gates must be run in numerical order, in the correct direction, and without being touched, or else time penalties will be incurred by the paddler and subsequently added on to the final time.
That sounds pretty simple. However, canoe slalom racing is incredibly difficult once one adds whitewater rapids into the equation. High-level slalom races take place on rapids that most people would never dream of navigating a kayak or canoe through. A Chinese study conducted after the Beijing Olympics compared the difficulty of canoe slalom racing to playing golf during an earthquake while trying to hit a hole in one under a stopwatch. Perfection is basically impossible in this sport - the one who is closest to perfection is generally the one who ultimately emerges victorious over the competition.
Racing at the ICF Junior/U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia last year with the United States Junior National Team is certainly my career highlight, where I finished thirty-seventh and as the second-best boat from the United States in my category. This year, my aim is to have a much higher finishing position when I go back to World Championships this summer in Ivrea, Italy.
I've earned the honor of representing the United States at the Junior World Championships. However, I cannot do this alone. Overseas travel is not cheap. Although this is an Olympic sport, athletes pay out of pocket.
I set a goal of $5,000 primarily to cover the costs of the airline tickets , housing and coaching fees with the team, and to cover road-tripping costs as I plan on traveling and racing in as many places as I can before I must return to start my senior year of high school. Although my mother is my biggest supporter and I help where I can, we currently lack the resources to pull this kind of money together ourselves.
I am currently in Europe and posting to FaceBook when I can. WiFi islands are elusive.
Please help me meet my goal!
Organizer and beneficiary
Alden Henrie
Organizer
Snow Shoe, PA
Michele Barbin
Beneficiary
