Josefa Idem - German / Italian

Member of the World Paddle Awards Academy

It is an absolute privilege and an honour to announce kayak sprint Josefa Idem as Academy Member for the World Paddle Awards.

Josefa is one of the most successful paddlers in the history of the sport with an athletic and medal-winning career spanning 29 years! She is also the most decorated Italian paddler across all canoesport disciplines and, just behind two Italian equestrian competitors in joint first with 6 medals, she is the 2nd best Italian Olympian ever to have competed winning 5 medals over 8 Games.

Originally competing for West Germany from 1983 to 1989, she went on to do so for Italy from 1990, when she married her coach Guglielmo Guerrini, right up until London 2012 when she proudly retired.

Josefa's total medal haul, cumulative across both her nationalities, comes to the following: 5 Olympic medals in (K1W 500m: 1xgold at Sydney 2000, 2xsilver 2004/2008, 1xbronze 1996 and K2W 500m: 1x Bronze 1984), 15 European Championship podiums (8xgold with 4 over K1W 1000m, 4xsilver, 3xbronze) and 22 World Championship medals across 4 distances in K1 200m, 500m, 1000m and 5000m (5xgold, 9xsilver, 8xbronze).

Some trivia about her performances; Olympics: at Beijing 2008 she finished 4/1000ths of a second behind the gold medallist Inna Osypenko-Radomska, World Championships: Josefa's best distance in K1 was 500m where she took home 11 medals (2xgold, 3xsilver, 6xbronze) and unimaginably in 1990, 1997 and 1998 she medalled in all 3 distances she entered – in 1998 she also entered a fourth race which was the K2 500m, ending up in 9th, European Championships: Josefa won a home gold in Milan in 2001 and in Croatia 1999 extraordinarily she was first in 3 races; K1W 200m, 500m and 1000m.    

London 2012 was her final race as a professional kayak sprinter, she finished just out of the medals in 5th in K1W 500m but the reception she received was that of a true sporting legend.

Josefa not only is an expert in sprint, she brings expertise in sports politics to the WPA Academy; alongside her training she worked as a Councilllor (delegate for sports) for the Italian city of Ravenna. Shortly after her exit from elite canoe racing, she was elected into the Italian Parliment as Minister for Equal Opportunities and Sports where she served a one-year term.

In addition, she is a known figure for her charity work including raising awareness of multiple sclerosis.