Ricarda Funk
German slalom canoeist
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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.[1]
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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[3]
Funk won the overall World Cup title in the K1 class in 2016, 2017 and 2024 and in kayak cross in 2025.[3] As of 2025 she has amassed 13 World Cup wins and 27 podiums.
Funk was the year-end World No. 1 in 2017.[4]
Career statistics
Major championships results timeline
| Event | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | K1 | Not held | — | Not held | 1 | Not held | 11 | Not held | |||||
| Kayak cross | Not held | 14 | Not held | ||||||||||
| World Championships | K1 | 5 | 2 | Not held | 3 | 3 | 5 | Not held | 1 | 1 | 7 | Not held | 4 |
| Kayak cross | Not held | — | — | — | Not held | 13 | 7 | 10 | Not held | 6 | |||
| Kayak cross individual | Not held | 34 | |||||||||||
| K1 team | 5 | 14 | Not held | 1 | 2 | 7 | Not held | — | 1 | 8 | Not held | 2 | |
| European Championships | K1 | 1 | 2 | — | 13 | 1 | 9 | — | 3 | 14 | 1[a] | — | 1 |
| Kayak cross | Not held | — | 11 | 2[a] | — | 11 | |||||||
| Kayak cross individual | Not held | — | 10 | ||||||||||
| K1 team | 4 | 8 | — | 7 | 1 | 2 | — | 6 | 5 | 3[a] | — | 4 | |
- 2023 European Games
World Cup individual podiums
 |
 |
 |
Total | |
| K1 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 24 |
| Kayak cross | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Kayak cross individual | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 13 | 6 | 8 | 27 |
| Season | Date | Venue | Position | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
