Category: Champion
Sport: K1W Slalom
Years Active: 1978-1996
Home Base: Bethesda, MD (USA)
Champion Accomplishments:
- 1992 Olympics – Bronze Medal
- 1996 Olympics – Silver Medal
- 1988 World Cup – Overall Women’s Champion
- 1989 and 1991 World Championships – Individual Silver Medalist
- 1991 World Championships – Team Bronze Medal
- 1993 World Championships – Team Silver Medal
Other Accomplishments:
- 1988 – 2005 President of Rapidstyle, a manufacturer of whitewater paddling clothing
- Present – Head Coach and Race Director, Bethesda Center of Excellence
At the ’96 Olympics and less than ten months after shoulder surgery, Dana overcame a harsh first run flip with an incredible second run which equaled the gold medalist’s best run earning her the silver and her second Olympic medal. She is the only American to win two Olympic medals in whitewater slalom. Her first was the bronze at the ’92 Olympics. Her Game Face Poster reads, “I’m not a big thinker, I just paddle.” After retiring from competition after the ’96 Olympics, she devoted more time to her company, Rapidstyle, a manufacturer of fashionable and functional paddling clothes until 2005. Dana continues to coach and introduce young paddlers to the sport. She and her husband Thierry Humeau, a fellow Olympian and World Championship medalist, work together running Telecam Films, a TV and video production company focusing on programming touching education, humanitarian, and development issues.
Dana has been instrumental in restoring vigor to the Bethesda Center of Excellence, the Washington, DC racing program that has produced many whitewater slalom Olympians and World Champions and includes the highest quality coaching team in the United States.
Dana Chladek is actively coaching and mentoring developing and junior whitewater slalom racers in cooperation with the Bethesda Center of Excellence, BCE. Check out more about Dana’s coaching http://bce-racing.com/blog/racing-programs/bce-racing-team/