PRAGUE — The careers of many athletes have been drastically changed as the International Olympic Committee moves closer to its goal of gender equality at the Olympics. On June 9, the I.O.C. increased the number of women’s events and participants for the Tokyo Games in 2020 in sports like boxing, canoeing, judo, rowing, sailing and shooting.
As a result, some men’s events were dropped, and nowhere were the effects felt more than in canoeing. The International Canoe Federation lost three men’s events from the Olympic program and gained three women’s events. In slalom, men’s canoe doubles (C2), which has been contested at every Olympics since 1992, was replaced by women’s canoe singles (C1).