Today, canoe sprint leaves the traditional regatta course behind.

For one day, some of the world’s best paddlers will race in the heart of Palma, with the Cathedral of Mallorca towering above them and the Parc de la Mar transformed into a very different kind of canoeing venue.

The third edition of the Trofeo ABANCA Ciutat de Palma de Piragüismo – Paddle Games takes place today, bringing together Olympic medallists, world and European champions and a new generation of athletes for a full day of racing designed to bring our sport closer to the people.

That idea has been at the heart of Paddle Games from the beginning.

Rather than asking people to travel to a traditional canoe sprint venue to discover our sport, the ambition is to bring canoeing to them: into cities, into spectacular locations and into places where somebody might stop to watch simply because something exciting is happening in front of them.

Few settings could represent that idea better than Palma.

The Parc de la Mar, sitting beneath the Cathedral and only metres from the historic centre of the city, provides a spectacular natural arena for racing and an opportunity for spectators to experience international-level canoeing from close range.

It is also the perfect continuation of the Real Club Náutico de Palma’s long tradition of organising major sporting events and its ambition to connect sport more closely with the city and its people.

And the quality of the athletes racing today is extraordinary.

Between them, the competitors arrive in Palma with 10 Olympic medals and more than 300 medals from World Championships, European Championships and other major international competitions.

But today they will not only race for themselves.

They will race for their teams.

Meet the teams

GRÁFICAS SALABERT brings together Marcus Cooper, João Ribeiro, Sara Ouzande, Carol García, Pablo Martínez and Claudia Couto.

It is a line-up packed with experience, with three Olympic medals, nine Olympic appearances and 77 international medals between its six athletes.

CORAL BOATS will be represented by Messias Baptista, Alberto Llera, Zsóka Csikós, Katrine Jensen, Joan Antoni Moreno and Viktoria Yarchevska.

Moreno’s appearance makes today particularly special. After an accident interrupted his 2026 season, Palma marks his return to international competition — and another chapter in a comeback that has required plenty of patience.

TRUI lines up with Carlos Arévalo, Victor Aasmul, Lena Röhlings, Daniela García, Diego Domínguez and María dels Àngels Moreno — another team combining Olympic experience, international success and some exciting young talent.

And then there is the home team.

TEAM RCNP brings together Alex Graneri, Rodrigo Germade, Emily Lewis, Nerea García, Iker Fernández and Antía Jácome, racing today in the colours of the Real Club Náutico de Palma.

But four of today’s teams begin the day incomplete.

And that is deliberate.

MAPFRE, QUIRÓNSALUD, EULEN and EUROPCAR begin with their canoe paddlers, while their kayak places will be decided through today’s Open competition.

It creates something we particularly wanted from this edition of Paddle Games: a genuine connection between the Open and Elite competitions.

Perform well enough in the Open and, only a few hours later, you could find yourself racing in the same team as some of the best paddlers in the world.

MAPFRE features Hungary’s Ágnes Kiss, with young Izan Fernández stepping in for Carlo Tacchini.

QUIRÓN SALUD begins with Manuel Fontán and Chloé Nicot.

EULEN brings together Conrad-Robin Scheibner and Elena Gómez-Millán.

And EUROPCAR completes the eight-team field with Pablo Graña and Adriana Paniagua.

By the time the Elite racing begins, we will know the complete line-ups.

For some of the athletes racing in the Open this morning, therefore, this is about much more than winning a race.

It is an opportunity to race their way into the Paddle Games.

A different way to experience canoeing

The teams are only one part of what makes today different.

Paddle Games was created with a willingness to experiment: with formats, with presentation, with technology and with the relationship between athletes and spectators.

Kayak and canoe come together. Individual performances contribute to something bigger. The Open competition connects directly with the Elite event. And the entire competition takes place not on an isolated international regatta course, but in one of the most recognisable places in Palma.

The objective is not to replace traditional canoe sprint.

Far from it.

There is something special about our World Championships, European Championships, World Cups and Olympic Games. They remain at the heart of our sport and its history.

Paddle Games simply asks whether there can also be another way.

Something shorter. Something closer. Something easier to understand. Something that gives athletes an opportunity to show their personalities as well as their performances.

And something capable of making a person walking beside the Cathedral in Palma today stop, look towards the water and wonder:

What is happening down there?

Perhaps they stay for one race.

Perhaps they stay for five.

Perhaps they discover an athlete they had never heard of before. Perhaps a child watches an Olympic medallist racing only metres away and decides that they would like to try paddling themselves.

That is ultimately what this project is about.

Three years into this adventure, the ambition remains remarkably simple:

Bring the sport to the people. Put the athletes at the centre. Keep experimenting. And never stop asking how we can make canoeing even more exciting to experience.

Today, beneath the Cathedral of Mallorca, the games begin.

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