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Racing

Competition

Competition and cruising have gone hand-in-hand since the formation of CCA. The Club’s founding members brought together a small band of paddlers who savored the fellowship of a dancing campfire within the wooded stillness of the remote river island, and who also wanted to provide a sponsoring organization for the annual Potomac Whitewater Race which began in 1954. Throughout the intervening years, a healthy balance of cruises and races within our program has been of benefit to every active paddler in the club. Improved equipment designs and more highly skilled paddlers have resulted from this competition.

CCA sponsors the annual Potomac Whitewater Race, which is now called the Potomac Downriver Race, usually held in May. Check the CCA website or the Cruiser for details. For a complete local, national, and international listing of whitewater races, contact the Bethesda Center of Excellence or http://www.whitewaterslalom.us/schedules.html.

At international competitions, notably the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup events each year, athletes from the CCA and the Bethesda Center of Excellence regularly form two-thirds of the U.S. Whitewater Slalom Team and are well represented on the U.S. Wildwater Team.

Racing & Training

The Bethesda Center of Excellence (BCE) began as the racing division of CCA (originally referred to as the “slalom division" in the CCA By-Laws). However, as the BCE grew throughout the years, it became its own organization. Nonetheless, the BCE continues to co-sponsor the CCA's Potomac Downriver Race, and the BCE often works together with the CCA for local training and competition. Greater Washington area athletes have been making the U.S. Whitewater Teams the since the 1960’s, and the BCE is designated as a Center of Excellence Training Center by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Whitewater Slalom Committee of USA Canoe/Kayak (USACK). The BCE relies on the financial support of interested individuals and receives partial funding through the USACK Development Committee.

The mission of the BCE is to provide high-quality, year-round whitewater training sites, world-class training facilities, coaching, training camps, and other training and racing opportunities to all actively training and racing slalom and wildwater athletes. Today many BCE athletes ages of all ages train on the Potomac River and compete in the National Championships and U.S. Team Trials. The BCE’s World-Class whitewater athletes are World Champions, Olympic Medalists, and World Cup Medalists.

The Feeder Cup is a series of four races held on the Potomac River in the summer at near Lock 6 of the C&O Canal. Check the Cruiser for dates. All recreational boaters are encouraged to participate. A & B nationally ranked athletes are encouraged to race, but are not eligible for Feeder Cup points. Points are awarded at each race for participation, clean runs, race placing for first through third, and most improved paddler during the overall race series.