In kayak and canoe sprints, every movement must be precise.

Applying and releasing pressure at the right moments, timing the strokes just right, and perfectly maintaining your balance could be the difference between a gold-winning finish and not making the podium at all.

"The more you splash, the more you drag, the slower you're going to be," said Nevin Harrison, who won gold in the women's 200m canoe sprint in Tokyo, the first U.S. canoe sprint gold in 33 years and first-ever by a woman.

In kayak sprint races, riders sit front-facing in a narrow shell similar to that of a standard kayak. In canoe sprint, riders compete on one knee.

In the latest daily episode of The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast, titled "Day 7: Surface Tension," Harrison, fellow U.S. teammates Aaron Small and Jonas Ecker, and Team USA coach Shelley Oates-Wilding describe all of the extreme technical elements of kayak and canoe sprints and just how critical it is to balance each piece.

"I feel like a lot of people ... think that because it's a pulling motion with your arm, it should [use] bicep," Harrison said. "But in reality, you want to keep your arm straight as long as you can and use your, back, your legs, your abs, all of those muscles to kind of get yourself going."

Hear all of that and more on the seventh daily episode of The Podium.

New episodes of The Podium will be released every day during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. 

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