USA Canoe/Kayak National Athletic Center

Effective December 3rd 2011, The Bethesda Center of Excellence is formally changing its name to Potomac Whitewater Racing Center.

Thank you for your interest in the Potomac Whitewater Racing Center, a non-profit Federal 501(c)3 organization. The PWRC is also a USA Canoe/Kayak Olympic Center of Excellence.

The Potomac Whitewater Racing Program has a record of over four decades of outstanding whitewater racing and competition history along the Potomac River.

Mild year round temperatures coupled with world-renowned Potomac River whitewater from Great Falls to Little Falls keeps our local whitewater athletes at the top of the slalom and wildwater racing scene.

The mission of Potomac Whitewater is to promote the sport of slalom and wildwater canoe and kayak racing, including providing to all actively training and racing BCE slalom and wildwater athletics:

(a) high-quality, year-round whitewater training sites
(b) world-class training facilities
(c) coaching
(d) training camps
(e) other training and racing opportunities

Potomac Whitewater Racing Center’s mission also includes community outreach for the benefit of the community, the club and the sport.  We continue to be a leader in the Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. area regarding environmental protection, preservation, and clean-up of the area’s rivers and streams.  PWRC organizes  environmental clean-up days, and works with the following organizations: Potomac Riverkeeper, American Whitewater, American Rivers, and The Alice Ferguson Foundation.

Greater Washington, D.C. area athletes have been making the United States Whitewater Team the since the 1960′s.  Athletes first started using the Feeder Canal on the Potomac River for their daily gate training workouts while preparing for the 1972 Olympic Games. Today over forty PWRC athletes ages 12 to 60+ train on the Feeder Canal, Dickerson Whitewater Course, and other areas of the Potomac River while compete in the Slalom and Wildwater National Championships and U.S. National/Olympic Team Trials.  Potomac Whitewater’s World-Class whitewater athletes are World Champions, Olympic Medalists, and World Cup Medalists.

The PWRC focuses on daily training needs of the world-class athletes who train on the Potomac River and others who aspire to be elite whitewater slalom and wildwater racers. The athletes and volunteers maintain year-round training gates on the Feeder Canal since the early 1970′s, and hang gates on the Potomac River when the water levels permit, and regularly work to clean-up the Potomac River. The Feeder Canal is adjacent to the C & O Canal next to Lock #6 off of the Clara Barton Parkway. The Feeder Canal allows the Potomac River to feed additional water into the C & O Canal as it continues into Georgetown. There are 40 to 50 training gates here in class I-II at normal river flow levels.

In 1991, Potomac Electric Power Company (“Pepco”) allowed the PWRC to build an artificial whitewater course in the existing outflow canal of Pepco’s Dickerson Generating Station simulating the 1992 Olympic course in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain.  The Dickerson Generating Station is now owned by GenOn; however, GenOn continues to maintain a partnership with PWRC to provide a training course for PWRC athletes. If the plant is generating, the river water is warmed as it cools the coal fired generators prior to  returning to the Potomac River.  If the plant is not generating and National Team athletes require training water, GenOn generously donates “pumped water” to PWRC for paddling. Located on GenOn property the whitewater course is open to actively training and racing slalom competitors who are PWRC members.  On September 26, 2010, Potomac Whitewater Racing hosted the 2010 USA Canoe/Kayak Slalom National Championships at the Dickerson Whitewater Course.

PWRC supports numerous  racing and coaching programs for Junior and Senior National Team athletes  as well as aspiring development level paddlers. PWRC maintains whitewater slalom training gates on the Potomac River Feeder Canal and at the Dickerson Whitewater Course. PWRC also maintains a small whitewater-focused weight training room in the Brookmont Community Church. The PWRC hosts the Maryland Canoe and Kayak series which includes races from novice to expert levels, and participants from ages 7 to 70.

Thank you for you interest in our United States Athletes as they strive for whitewater slalom excellence toward the 2012 London Olympic Games and beyond!

Potomac Whitewater Racing Center

PO Box 54

Cabin John, MD 20818