John Felton (born 5 December 1960 in
Kyogle
Kyogle () is a town in the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales, Australia. It falls within the local government area of Kyogle Council. At the 2016 census, Kyogle had a population of 2,751 people. Kyogle is known as a "gateway" ...
) is an Australian
slalom canoeist who competed from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. He finished 14th in the
C-2 event at the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
.
John Felton commenced canoeing in 1974, he subsequently competed internationally from 1979 – 1983 when he retired having won a Commonwealth Title (Scotland, 1981) and having finished as high as 4th in the World Championships (Jonquiere, Canada 1979). After Canoe Slalom was readmitted to the Olympic Games in 1992 he came out of retirement in 1993 (at 32 years of age) and teamed up again with Andrew Wilson for a shot at the Atlanta Olympic Games. After qualifying for the Games and 4 weeks before the start he broke 2 ribs in a training accident in Augsburg, Germany (the site of the 1972 Olympics). They went on to finish 14th at the 1996 Olympics.
After these Games the then Minister for The Olympics – Michael Knight threw the sport of canoe slalom out of the Olympic Games. The International Canoe Federation approached John to head the project to have canoe slalom readmitted to the Olympic Program. Felton was successful and in August 1997 slalom was readmitted. Felton is credited along with Australian Engineer Peter Heeley and 5 time World slalom Champion Richard Fox as the inventors of the world's first totally artificial, pumped whitewater course. John oversaw the construction of the facility as the ICF whitewater specialist and was subsequently appointed to the position of Competition Manager for the 2000 Olympic Games.
Subsequently, he has consulted on many artificial whitewater courses throughout the world, spoken on sustainability and ensuring legacy at a number of outdoor and sports conferences and is the Design Director with his company the USA based Whitewater Parks International.
John has been the lead designer for numerous projects in almost every continent including the 2012 London Olympic Whitewater Venue (Broxbourne), the Rio d' Janiero 2016 whitewater facility (Deodoro), the Tokyo 2020 Whitwater Stadium (Kasai Rinkai Park) and ground breaking facilities like the Vector Wero Whitewater Park
in Auckland New Zealand and Xavage
whitewater for Xcaret Amusement Parks in Cancun Mexico.
References
Australia Olympic Committee
Sports-Reference.com profile
*Canoeing at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's slalom C-2
These are the results of the men's C-2 slalom competition in canoeing at the 1996 Summer Olympics. The C-2 (canoe single) event is raced by two-man canoes through a whitewater course. The venue for the 1996 Olympic competition was at the Toccoa/ ...
Wikipedia Olympic Reference
ABC Television
Sports Illustrated
Whitewater Parks International
New Zealand Times
Australian Canoeing Inc.
1960 births
Australian male canoeists
Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Living people
Olympic canoeists for Australia
Sportsmen from New South Wales
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