This July some of the world’s best canoe and kayak sprinters gathered at Dartmouth’s Lake Banook for the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships.
Featuring kayak and canoe singles, doubles and fours events, nearly 650 athletes participated from 54 nations.
Thirteen Nova Scotians competed for Team Canada across the Junior and U23 events. We chatted with three of these athletes to highlight some of the amazing Nova Scotian talent that competed out on the water.
Ian Gaudet
Ian Gaudet was no stranger to paddling for Team Canada when he competed in this year’s ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, having first done so in 2018 when he was fifteen years old. This time around it was great to compete at his home lake with his home club says the now 22-year-old from Dartmouth.
“It was an amazing experience of racing, but it was also just an amazing experience to have this event down there and bring together some of my friends that I haven’t seen for a long time. And it was super fun overall,” says Ian. “I am also honoured that we got to use such an amazing lake with such strong roots in the indigenous culture and communities in Nova Scotia.”
Ian competed in two different events.
For the K4 Under 23 Men’s 500m he says it was a very new crew, with the four of them only starting to train together a week before the competition.
“It really came together and we worked well together. I was really happy with how the event went and it was super fun with the guys to bring home a great performance,” says Ian.
The team took home a sixth-place finish.
In the K1 Under 23 Men’s 500m Ian came in tenth, saying he was happy that he was able to have a good performance and take home the Final B win.
“One of the biggest parts that keeps me going is the continued representation of our country. So, I can go and really show what Canada means to me and what Canada could mean to other people,” says Ian.
Looking ahead to the future, Ian’s next focus is securing a spot to represent Canada at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Games.
Brianna Smith
Like many locals, Brianna Smith had her friends and family present at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Dartmouth, but she had some special additional supporters as well.
“All of the kids that I get to coach got to come and watch me race and a lot of them were volunteering as well,” says Brianna. “It was really cool seeing all of them cheer me on and watching me compete when it’s usually the other way around.”
And it wasn’t too long ago that the 21-year-old from Hammonds Plains was a spectator herself.
“Competing on Lake Banook since I was in U13, I went and watched Senior Worlds there for Canoe ‘22, and then to be a part of it at Canoe ‘26 was a really cool experience.”
Spending so much time on Lake Banook, Brianna is used to seeing the same group of people on the water. She says that it was cool to share the lake with people from so many different countries.
Brianna raced in the U23 Women’s K4 500m event, with the race that deemed her team eighth overall being the first time Brianna competed in a U23 Final A. Additionally, she and her partner came ninth in the K1 Under 23 Mixed Relay 5000m.
Looking ahead to August, Brianna will be competing at the 2026 Canoe Kayak Canada Sprint National Championships in Ottawa, where she hopes to make the top three in the K1 500m, perform well in the K1 1000m and have fun.
“Going and racing with all of my friends, I’m just looking forward to that,” says Brianna. “In the paddling community everyone’s just so nice and everyone is so supportive of each other. That’s how I’ve made my best friends that I’ve now been friends with for so long.”
Nolen Mitchell
For Nolen Mitchell, this year’s ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships was a great learning experience.
The Dartmouth born paddler took part in two events—the C2 Junior Men’s 500m with his partner Roenn Hodgins and the C4 Junior Men’s 500m, taking home eighth and seventh place finishes respectively.
“There’s nothing better than when you’re coming down for that last 100 meters and you can hear the crowd. It was especially fun for me. I was watching the live streams back on YouTube and I could see my dad running along cheering, and all the different people who showed up for my races.”
This was the 16-year-old’s second time representing Canada, after participating in the 2025 Olympic Hopes Regatta, which Nolen says is more of an entry level international competition.
“When you go to this next step up then all these crews from all these other countries are very fast and so this whole competition has been a great experience for me in getting to know that there are always faster people out there and kind of finding that it’s a good motivator to push yourself,” says Nolen.
About two weeks later Nolen went on to take home gold in the Junior Men’s C1 500m and the silver medal in the Junior Men’s C1 1000m at the 2026 Pan American Canoe Federation Pan American Sprint and Paracanoe Championships in Montreal.
But looking ahead to later this summer Nolen and Roenn are hoping to capture a medal at the 2026 Olympic Hopes Regatta in Slovakia. Nolen met Roenn at the National Team Trials last year, and, despite Roenn living in Ontario, they have made their partnership work.
For others looking to follow in Nolen’s footsteps and start paddling competitively, his advice is that your dedication and how much you train is one of the keys to becoming a great paddler. “Just be fearless and don’t really worry about what other people are doing or who’s fast and who’s strong. If you commit yourself you can be great.”
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In addition to the ICF Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint World Championships, the ICF Masters Canoe Sprint World Championships were held in June on Lake Banook. These two landmark events were delivered by Canoe ’26, organized in partnership with Canoe Kayak Canada, the Atlantic Division of Canoe Kayak Canada and the International Canoe Federation (ICF).
