A successful World Cup series including gold in the World Cup final in Kayak Cross and a fifth in the K1 on the Paris Olympic course and a good performance at the World Champs in London has meant Luuka has qualified New Zealand’s quota for Paris 2023 to keep her campaign on track. So too has Finn Butcher qualified a spot for New Zealand in the men’s disciplines following his performances at the same events.
Luuka first took up canoe slalom at 14 years of age and by the age of 19 was a rookie competitor at her first Olympic games in Beijing 2008 with little or no funding, a situation which continued on to her London 2012 campaign.
But a breakthrough performance in London which pushed Luuka into the Top 16 in the world ensured a level of funding and support which allowed her to keep her momentum going as she set her sights on Rio 2016.
Luuka says her first year as a funded high performance athlete was very stressful. “I knew I had a big opportunity but that put real pressure on me to achieve the results which would ensure I retained my HP support.”
And the rest is history. As her funding and support increased year on year, so too did her performances. “Heading towards Rio I was able to create a plan for what I called my ‘no compromises’ campaign,” says Luuka.
She pulled together a support team including Mental Skills coach, Kylie Wilson, Nutritionist Christel Dunshea-Mooij, coach Campbell Walsh and Performance Planner and Campaign Manager, Caroline Brisebois who she describes as pivotal people in her kayaking career.
The hard work paid off handsomely with what Luuka describes as a breakthrough result at the finish line of her Rio campaign – a silver medal.
As Luuka continued to push for further world stage results, her HPSNZ support team evolved and expanded. Joining the team, and with Luuka today, is physiologist Julia Casadio and Cambridge based S&C coach, Dan Smart, Physio, Rone Thompson and now Auckland based Physio Louise Johnson.
“We have a very clear and focussed team approach for my campaigns,” says Luuka. “As I’ve become more experienced I feel I’m now able to lead the support team myself. However, it is a real strength that the rest of the team know each other really well through working not just with me but with other sports.
“I’ve organised some team networking sessions such as a white water rafting experience, we do regular Zoom calls, Julia takes responsibility for sending out training updates to the team and our check ins continue on a regular basis when I’m offshore.”
Luuka’s push for Paris comes off the back off a challenging few years. She has faced and overcome a series of frustrating injuries and long Covid, all of which made her return to competition a mix of trial and error.
“My whole team came together to work out the best way for me to get back on track. We used a hyperbaric chamber to help with the respiratory impacts of long Covid, rest was a critical factor as was a good nutrition programme.
“The role Julia played cannot be underestimated. She did a lot of research as the impacts of long Covid were still unknown, especially for high performance athletes. She undertook a lot of monitoring of my workload as well.
Julia has worked directly with Luuka for eight years. “She’s always up for a challenge,” says Julia. “If there’s a setback, and there have been more than a few, she is always keen to learn and to find solutions. This is what keeps her going as she gets into her fifth Olympic cycle.”
Looking at the big picture is how Julia describes her role in Luuka’s support team. “A lot of my work with Luuka is monitoring as she tends to do too much, especially now she has taken the reins to lead her own campaign.
“I work closely with her to ensure she meets her physiological goals, that she is resting and recovering sufficiently, especially as her predicted load increases now that she is competing in the second discipline, Kayak Cross, which is considerably more physically demanding.”
A key difference between the two canoe slalom disciplines is boat weight. “The Kayak Cross boat is 18kg compared with the 9kg K1. This alone means training is more physical and a higher strength level is required resulting in a new training programme and strategy.”
Luuka’s relationship with nutritionist Christel is another longstanding one. “I started working with Luuka in 2012 after the London Olympics as we started the preparation and planning for Rio 2016. Her works ons continue to be challenging, dealing with long Covid, injuries and the two quite different disciplines she is competing in.”
Christel says the nutrition work ons have had an extra consideration since Luuka became vegetarian . “This coincided with the Tokyo campaign and the addition of the new discipline, both of which meant a greater focus on appropriate fuelling, the need for pre training, recovery and, on most days, a second training session.
“My job with Luuka is made a lot easier because she is a very dedicated athlete, is good at asking questions and pays a lot of attention to her nutrition programme.”
As with the physiological impacts of long Covid, Christel says there was a lot of research and trial required. “Luuka’s appetite was down, she needed a high intake of anti-inflammatory anti-oxidant foods, yet she still needed a high protein diet due to the power nature of her sport.
“It was a great help that Luuka is now very experienced and I was also able to work closely with Julia on the physiological training programme.”
As Luuka focusses her attention on Paris and her fifth Olympic Games, she says quite simply the support she gets from HPSNZ and her performance support team is and will continue to be super critical to her campaign.
