A tsunami of emotion will carry the world’s greatest canoeist to her most gruelling Olympics. Editor-at-Large Louise Evans discovers how Jessica Fox will sustain the energy needed for an assault on three gold medals.
Jessica Fox’s heart was racing at competition pace of 185 beats per minute, but she wasn’t competing.
The Olympic canoe gold medallist and 10-time world champion wasn’t even on the whitewater rapids.
She was running alongside the course at the International Canoe Federation (ICF) World Cup in Prague cheering on her younger sister Noemie who was paddling to join her in qualifying for the Paris Olympics – Noemie’s first and Jessica’s fourth.
“It was up there with winning the Olympics for me, one of the best days of my life,” the 30-year-old Jessica said.
“I was screaming, I lost my voice, I was crying she had done it,” Jessica said. “It’s a very hard thing to qualify. She believed. She worked so hard. She deserved it so much. There was so much joy and love and happiness for her achieving that dream. At the finish line I jumped in the water and gave her a massive hug. All the tears and emotion came out.”
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20164446/IMG_0834-1024x761.jpeg)
Noemie, who like Jess is also a NSW Institute of Sport athlete, will be the fourth member of the Fox family to vie for the medals at an Olympics.
Her English father Richard, a 10-time world canoe champion, competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Mum and coach Myriam paddled for France in 1992 and won bronze in Atlanta four years later.
Jessica, the family’s GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), started winning gold at World Cup events when she was 16 and now has 51. She has won eight world championships plus four medals from three Olympics so far. In London 2012 aged 18 she won silver in the canoe slalom kayak singles. She went home from Rio 2016 with kayak bronze. In Tokyo she won kayak bronze again and broke through for gold in the canoe singles, making her the most successful canoe slalom woman in Olympic history.
Now sister Noemie, 27, will join her in Paris, an emotionally-charged feat Jessica said would be “really beautiful to be able to celebrate that as a family” but “I need to work on my emotional regulation and management when Noemie competes”.
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20164431/IMG_0835-1024x707.jpeg)
Controlling her emotions and energy will be key for Jessica who faces the most gruelling Olympic program of her already extraordinary career in Paris where she’ll be competing in three events – the canoe and kayak singles and the aggressive new Olympic event of kayak cross – along with Noemie. The kayak cross is a roller derby contested by four paddlers racing each other on the white water course – collisions guaranteed, mouth guards recommended.
“I am going to give (five-time Olympic champion swimmer) Emma McKeon a call to see how she did eight events in Tokyo,” Fox said.
Fox has already survived a brutal test event where she emerged with three gold medals from her three events while overwhelmed with emotion from her grandpa’s death and her sister’s breakthrough Olympic qualification.
Fox’s three gold-medal feat came in Krakow Poland at the last pre-Games ICF World Cup event (June 14-16). “I’m super proud of how I raced, I never imagined it would end up with three gold,” she said.
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20164426/IMG_0836-1024x683.jpeg)
“We have had emotional highs and lows. My grandpa (Roger Fox) Dad’s dad was one of our biggest fans. He was at the world championships last year in London. He passed away last Sunday but what was really beautiful is that he knew Noemie had qualified before he passed away.
“It gave us some joy and peace knowing that he knew. He would have been so proud and happy knowing that she had achieved that dream.
“He was coming to Paris, he had booked tickets. It is devastating that he will not be there. He was the reason my dad got into paddling and he was one of the founding members of Dad’s kayak club (in England). He did a lot for British canoeing.”
Against this background Fox won kayak gold, then the canoe plus the kayak cross in three consecutive days. In doing so she became the first paddler in history – male or female to sweep the field in all three disciplines.
“In Krakow I felt emotionally drained, it was a massive weekend of joy and love for Noimie qualifying and the devastation of losing our grandpa. So Krakow was a good exercise in learning how to manage that, stay focused and compartmentalise and get the job done regardless. You might be feeling tired, flat, exhausted, drained. You have to learn to dig deep and find that inner strength and manage those emotions.”
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20164413/IMG_0837-1024x683.jpeg)
At the Paris Olympics she’ll have 10 days to ride this rollercoaster over her three events. But the evening before the start of her first Olympic race at 4pm local Paris time on July 27, Fox is determined to attend the opening ceremony on the River Seine where she’s one of the favourites to be the Australian team’s flag bearer.
Rather than drain her energy Fox is relying on the ceremony to invigorate her. “I am planning on going regardless,” she said. “For me it is such an important part of the Olympics, to feel that energy and excitement. I have done it in London, Rio and Tokyo even though I was competing in the days following. It’s about managing the fatigue. I get so much energy from that moment and inspiration to kick start the Games.”
Fox is now training at the Olympic course in Paris for a month, fine tuning her race plans, working out how her boat reacts to the waves, where to put her paddle, gauging the wind, where she can attack, chase the speed, cut the lines.
![](https://sportshounds.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20165834/IMG_0839.jpeg)
As for the energy she’ll need for an assault on three gold medals over 10 days of Olympic competition, Fox says it’s about being smart when she’s not on the water.
“It is about conserving my energy when I am not competing,” she said. “Not staying any longer at the venue. Recharging, tuning out, watching something trashy on Netflix, painting. Physio, recovery, nutrition, sleep.”
Being French-born and partially based in France, she’s also unfazed by the extra attention she’ll receive in Paris being the “most Frenchist of the Aussies or the most Aussie of the French”.
“(French) media are showing more interest and it is a great opportunity to bring our two countries together and share what I love about Australia and France and how they work together for me. It is not overwhelming.”
Louise Evans is an award-winning journalist who has worked around Australia and the world as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and media executive for media platforms including The Sydney Morning Herald (eight years), The Australian (11 years) and Australian Associated Press (six years in London, Beijing and Sydney).
A women sports’ pioneer, Louise was the first female sports journalist employed by The Sydney Morning Herald and the first female sports editor at The Australian. Louise went on to work at six Olympic Games, six Commonwealth Games and numerous world sporting championships and grand slam tennis events.
Louise is the Founding Editor of AAP FactCheck, the Creator of #WISPAA – Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and national touring Exhibition and the author and producer of the Passage to Pusan book, documentary and exhibition.
In 2019 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) Queen’s Honour for services to the media and sport and named an Australian Financial Review Top 100 Woman of Influence for services to the arts, culture and sport.
In 2020 she won a NSW Volunteer of the Year Award plus the NSW Government Community Service Award for her women-in-sport advocacy work.
Discussion about this post