In Slalom Racing, paddlers have to navigate the kayak or canoe through pairs of poles, called "gates", set up over the challenging rapids, waves, eddies and currents on a 300m stretch of rough water. If the paddler touches one of the poles, or misses a gate altogether, penalty times are added to the time achieved by the competitor on that run. They are single kayak (K) events, for men and women, and canoe events, also for men and women, in single (C1) and double boats (C2). There are also team events.

This discipline made its appearance in the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 and then had to wait until 1992 to be reinstated to the Olympic programme.