Joe Clarke may be the most successful kayak cross athlete in history, but the Olympic champion insists he is still looking for ways to improve as he targets a fifth world title in Oklahoma this summer.
As the global king of kayak cross, you would think Joe Clarke would be happy with his performances. But the perfectionist has continued to pioneer the sport through its early days, squeezing every split second from his runs ahead of the World Championships in Oklahoma in July.
The 33-year-old has Olympic gold and silver to his name in the K1 slalom and will be gunning for a scarcely credible fifth World Championship kayak cross triumph across the pond.
He said: “Ultimately, there are four in the final and only three are going to get medals. On the start you can assess what you need to do to make it up, or you can relax a little bit if you're out front. Whereas in slalom, it's just you versus the clock, so you're very much trying to do your perfect run. I’m naturally a very powerful athlete, and that obviously leads its way into the start. I think I've got quite a good tactical mindset, and work very hard with my coach and others in the UK to try and pioneer new tactics and techniques, trying to stay ahead of the curve. Everybody's trying to think what's the next thing and try to stay ahead of that. If there's something new that we need to practice, then just keep kind of refining that.”
Clarke kicked off his 2026 season with a kayak cross bronze medal in Tacen, Slovenia, and landed his first victory of the summer in Augsburg earlier in June. Despite missing two World Cup events due to the birth of his daughter in 2025, he developed more techniques to maximise his speed down the whitewater courses.
“You pull off the ramp, so you've got the rip start basically, which catapults the boat off the ramp into the water a little bit quicker than just leaning forward. We've reached around the pole without your hand on the paddle too,” he said.
Kayak cross made its Olympic debut in 2024 to widespread acclaim, as competitors fought it out side-by-side to race to the finish line. But not everyone was so enamoured. Clarke said: “When it got announced, I was a bit apprehensive and didn't really know what to think of it. As it's gone through, I really got into it, and I absolutely love it now. It's a completely different event.”
With Oklahoma the venue for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, he will be hoping to prove his dominance this summer once again.
