The 2010 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held 19–22 August 2010 in Poznań, Poland, on Lake Malta.

Ronald Rauhe of Germany became the winningest medalist in men's kayak with his 21st career medal, earning that in a K-1 200 m silver.

Rauhe eclipsed that record he had tied at the previous championships with fellow German Torsten Gutsche.

When a competition is listed as a C-2 500 m event as an example, it means two people are in a canoe competing at a 500 metres (1,600 ft) distance.

[1] Poznań was awarded the 2010 championships at an ICF board of directors meeting in Madrid, Spain, on 23 October 2003.

[5] During the week of 1 March 2010, the ICF visited Lake Malta to meet with the Host Organizing Committee (HOC) to see how event preparations were progressing.

[6] 2.5 hours of live television coverage on a daily basis is planned for the semifinal and final event as provided in the contract to meet the needs of the European market.

[6] ICF Secretary General Simon Toulson expressed his support of the HOC and his hope that the 2010 championships will be a good one.

For the second time in the history of the championships, a tie occurred for a medal in the C-1 200 m bronze between Canada's Richard Dalton and Ukraine's Yuriy Cheban.

The first occurred thirty-five years earlier, in the K-1 1000 m gold between Italy's Oreste Perri and Poland's Grzegorz Śledziewski.