David Ford (canoeist)

David Watson Ford (born March 23, 1967, in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian slalom canoeist who has competed since the mid-1980s and is still actively competing. He is Canada's most successful slalom paddler.

Career

Ford has won two medals in the K1 event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. In 1999 he became the first non-European to win the World Championship title.<ref name=BCSHOF>Template:Cite web</ref> Ford followed up with a World Championship silver in 2003. In 2003 he also won the overall World Cup title in K1.<ref name="CKC Bio">Template:Cite web</ref> He was named Male Athlete of the Year at the 2003 Canadian Sport Awards, and was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.<ref name=BCSHOF />

Ford has competed in five Summer Olympics, earning a fourth-place finish in the K1 event in Athens in 2004. He had a sixth-place finish in the same event in 2008 in Beijing. Ford could not get a sixth appearance in the 2012 Summer Olympics, as of his elbow tendons had ruptured prior to the qualifier, and with no time for the required surgery, countless injections were unable to produce an adequate result for him to paddle to his abilities.<ref>David Ford: Whitewater trailblazer Template:Webarchive</ref>

World Cup individual podiums

	Template:Gold01	Template:Silver02	Template:Bronze03	Total
K1	5	1	8	14

Season	Date	Venue	Position	Event
1991	6 July 1991	Augsburg	3rd	K1
1992	7 June 1992	Merano	1st	K1
1995	1 October 1995	Ocoee	3rd	K1
1998	2 August 1998	Wausau	3rd	K1
2001	5 August 2001	Prague	3rd	K1
2002	26 May 2002	Guangzhou	3rd	K1
	28 July 2002	Tacen	3rd	K1
	15 September 2002	Tibagi	1st	K1
2003	11 May 2003	Penrith	1st	K1
	3 August 2003	Bratislava	3rd	K1
2004	30 May 2004	Merano	2nd	K1
2005	27 August 2005	Kern River	1st	K11
2006	20 August 2006	Madawaska	1st	K11
2009	3 August 2009	Kananaskis	3rd	K11

¹ Pan American Championship counting for World Cup points

Personal life

On April 25, 2009, Ford married Canadian alpine skier Kelly VanderBeek. They have a son, Cooper.<ref name=VSProfile14>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

• Template:Webarchive
• Official website Template:Webarchive
• Real Champions profile
• Template:Cite Sports-Reference

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