Jacob Schopf
- Country
- Germany
- Club
- Kanu Club Potsdam (im OSC e.V.)
- National team
- Germany Canoe Sprint
- Born
- 1999-06-08
Jacob Schopf left the Paris 2024 Olympics a double champion, winning the K2 500m with Max Lemke and the K4 500m alongside Max Rendschmidt, Lemke and Tom Liebscher — a haul that confirmed the Berlin-born kayaker as a cornerstone of Germany's sprint programme. Born on 8 June 1999, he races for Kanu Club Potsdam, having moved from the capital to the Olympic training hub in 2020. His rise was steep. He became world champion in the K2 1000m with Max Hoff in Szeged in 2019 at just 20, took Olympic silver in the same boat with Hoff in Tokyo, then claimed world titles in the K4 500m and the mixed K2 500m in Duisburg in 2023 as German kayaking pivoted to the 500m Olympic programme. European golds have come along the way too, from the K2 1000m in Poznań in 2021 to the K1 500m and K4 500m in Munich in 2022. The 2026 season has been one of the busiest of his career: 23 international starts and seven medals, four of them gold, across the World Cup circuit and the European Championships — where he won [K2 500m gold in Montemor-o-Velho](/news/european-canoe-sprint-championships-2026-wrap-up-en) after arriving as part of the [heavily favoured German squad](/news/2026-eca-canoe-sprint-european-championships-preview-en). His campaign also ran through the home [World Cup in Brandenburg](/news/icf-canoe-sprint-world-cup-2026-kiss-and-yin-shine-in-brandenburg). With the World Championships in Poznań (26–30 August) next on the season calendar and Los Angeles 2028 qualification running through the world rankings, Schopf and Germany's crew boats remain the standard the rest of the kayak field chases.