David Ford (canoeist)


David Watson Ford 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. Ford followed up with a World Championship silver in 2003. In 2003 he also won the overall World Cup title in K1. 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.
Ford has competed in five Summer Olympics, earning a fourth-place finish in the [Canoeing at the 2004 Summer Olympics|2004 Summer Olympics – Men's slalom K-1|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.

World Cup individual podiums

SeasonDateVenuePositionEvent
19916 July 1991Augsburg3rdK1
19927 June 1992Merano1stK1
1995[|1] October 1995Ocoee3rdK1
19982 August 1998Wausau3rdK1
20015 August 2001Prague3rdK1
200226 May 2002Guangzhou3rdK1
200228 July 2002Tacen3rdK1
200215 September 2002Tibagi1stK1
200311 May 2003Penrith1stK1
20033 August 2003Bratislava3rdK1
200430 May 2004Merano2ndK1
200527 August 2005Kern River1stK11
200620 August 2006Madawaska1stK11
20093 August 2009Kananaskis3rdK11

Personal life

On April 25, 2009, Ford married Canadian alpine skier Kelly VanderBeek. They have a son, Cooper.