The 2003 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held September 10–14, 2003 in Gainesville, Georgia, United States at Lake Lanier.

Located north of Atlanta, this was also where the canoe sprint and rowing events for the 1996 Summer Olympics took place.

The men's competition consisted of nine Canadian (single paddle, open boat) and nine kayak events.

Sergey Ulegin of Russia won two golds (C-4 200 m, C-4 500 m) and one silver (C-2 500 m), but was stripped of those medals when he tested positive for doping.

His teammates in the C-2 500 m (Aleksandr Kostoglod), C-4 200 m (Kostoglod, Roman Kruglyakov, and Maksim Opalev), and C-4 500 m (Kostoglod, Kruglyakov, and Opalev) events also lost their medals as a result of Ulegin's positive test.