Ricarda Funk

Ricarda Funk (born 15 April 1992) is a German slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2008, specializing in the K1 discipline and since 2021 also in kayak cross.

Career Funk won the gold medal in the K1 event at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This gold medal came after the disappointment of 2016, when she failed to qualify for the Rio games after losing to Melanie Pfeifer in the internal German qualification. By winning the 2021 World K1 title as well as the Olympic K1 gold at the delayed Tokyo games, Funk became the first canoe slalom athlete to win both an Olympic and a World title in the same discipline in the same year. A feat that is unlikely to be repeated since the World Championships typically don't take place in Olympic years.

She also competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, finishing 11th in the K1 event and 14th in kayak cross.

Funk won nine medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships including 5 individual medals. She won her first individual world K1 title in 2021 in Bratislava and then retained the title in 2022 in Augsburg. She also won silver in 2015 and two bronzes back-to-back in 2017 and 2018. The remaining three medals came from the K1 team events as part of the German team. These include two golds in 2017 and 2022 and two silvers in 2018 and 2025.

Funk won 10 medals (5 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronzes) at the European Championships, including a gold, a silver and a bronze at the 2023 European Games in Kraków. Seven of these medals are in individual events (4 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze in K1 and 1 silver in kayak cross). She was able to win the European K1 title in her first ever appearance at the 2014 European Canoe Slalom Championships in Vienna.

Career statistics

Major championships results timeline

World Cup individual podiums Total K1 13 5 7 25 Kayak cross 1 0 2 3 Kayak cross individual 1 2 0 3 Total 15 7 9 31

SeasonDateVenuePositionEvent 2012 26 August 2012 Prague 3rd K1 2014 22 June 2014 Prague 1st K1 17 August 2014 Augsburg 1st K1 2015 28 June 2015 Kraków 3rd K1 2016 5 June 2016 Ivrea 1st K1 12 June 2016 La Seu d'Urgell 3rd K1 4 September 2016 Prague 1st K1 2017 18 June 2017 Prague 3rd K1 25 June 2017 Augsburg 1st K1 2 July 2017 Markkleeberg 1st K1 3 September 2017 Ivrea 1st K1 10 September 2017 La Seu d'Urgell 1st K1 2018 23 June 2018 Liptovský Mikuláš 3rd K1 8 September 2018 La Seu d'Urgell 1st K1 2019 15 June 2019 Lee Valley 2nd K1 22 June 2019 Bratislava 3rd K1 31 August 2019 Markkleeberg 1st K1 2021 19 June 2021 Markkleeberg 2nd K1 2022 3 September 2022 La Seu d'Urgell 1st K1 2023 9 June 2023 Prague 2nd K1 3 September 2023 La Seu d'Urgell 3rd Kayak cross 2024 31 May 2024 Augsburg 2nd K1 7 June 2024 Prague 3rd K1 14 September 2024 Ivrea 2nd K1 2025 13 June 2025 Pau 1st K1 7 September 2025 Augsburg 2nd Kayak cross individual 7 September 2025 Augsburg 1st Kayak cross 2026 7 June 2026 Prague 2nd Kayak cross individual 7 June 2026 Prague 3rd Kayak cross 12 June 2026 Augsburg 1st K1 14 June 2026 Augsburg 1st Kayak cross individual