International Canoe Federation

In the mid 1970s, the Hong Kong Tourism Board organised the Dragon Boat Festival with tourism in mind. Thanks to this, the festival of 1976 saw the beginnings of how Dragon Boating is practiced in a lot of countries today. The festival was crowned an enormous success and the impressive pictures of Hong Kong harbour were transmitted around the world.

More than 30 years later, the numbers show the impressive development of Dragon Boat. There are more than 20 Million Chinese Dragon Boats spread across the world in all continents. Apparently there are 1,500 teams in Norway and Sweden, 1,000 teams in Great Britain and Germany is proud of having close to 2,000 teams, which adds up to almost 50,000 active members. More recently Dragon Boat sport has moved to Eastern Europe too with active teams in Poland, Hungary and Russia.

The competitions in Dragon Boat discipline have become a high-performance issue. Initially teams set up for fun have developed into teams for world-class paddling. World Championships, European Championships and other Continental Championships are well established and the medals are hard to come by. Setting itself apart from all other Canoe Disciplines; there is no other sport, where 22 people are at the same time on the Field of Play, let alone moving in absolute unison. This is a harmony that can only be achieved through many hours of paddling, training camps and with team spirit.

A lot of events are successful due to the fact that teams can enter in the fun category. The advantage of Dragon Boat is that paddlers can set up a team just for fun and with little effort get the boat to move as it should. A lot of casual and corporate teams use Dragon Boat for the social factor and for teambuilding.

The growth in the mass-sport section is enormous. For example there are companies in Sweden that were founded for the sole purpose of organising Dragon Boat festivals each year, like the week-long event in Malmö, Sweden that attracts up to 600 teams from companies, clubs across the country.

In all, Dragon Boat is a team sport, a social sport and a business sport, which is especially interesting in today’s world. It is a sport that can be pursued by anyone and everyone at every possible level.