Correspondent at Large Louise Evans meets two world champions bound for the Paris 2024 Games who are French at heart but Australian to the core.
France is literally the motherland for two Australian gold medal favourites who celebrated a-year-to-go to the 2024 Paris Olympics by honouring their close French family ties and Olympic pedigrees.
Australia’s Olympic and world canoe champion Jessica Fox and world champion platform diver Cassiel Rousseau both boast French-born mothers, both speak the language and both have French Olympic blood running through their veins.
Rousseau’s grandfather Michel Rousseau won sprint cycling gold for France at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. The 22-year old newly-crowned diving world champion from Brisbane grew up speaking French thanks to his fluent mother who was born in Paris.
Fox meanwhile is French born thanks to her Mum Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, who was born in Marseille and who won a canoe bronze medal for France at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Rousseau rates his granddad as his number one hero and wants to honour his legacy by also winning Olympic gold in France.
“Over the journey he (Michel) has become a bigger part of what I do,” Rousseau said. “And I’m hoping for the old switcheroo and that I can flip it around.”
Rousseau is an accidental diver who should be suffering altitude sickness given how fast he has risen up the world rankings to be the champion of the 10-metre tower.
“I’ve only been diving for five years and to become a world champion in such a short time doesn’t happen very often. It’s very exciting how fast I have progressed. My number one goal is to enjoy it and I love it.”
Rousseau was a 17-year old gymnast when he was dragged “screaming and kicking” to a diving trial by his Mum. “I have a fear of heights,” he confessed. “My sister was trialing for diving and my Mum dragged me along.
“Jumping off the one-metre and three-metre board felt very natural and fun. I love jumping off the 10 metre even more. I have good spatial awareness thanks to my background as a gymnast. I also did sports acrobatics. That really helps when you have a fear of heights.”
Rousseau’s plan for competing in Paris next year is rooted in achieving perfection.
“I like to work hard and I love the consistency of diving. I love that you have to nail six out of six dives. You have to train like it is the Olympics everyday. I train to make every dive consistent. I’m working hard at becoming consistently amazing. At the moment I am consistently really good. I want to be consistently amazing.”
To do that Rousseau has had to handcuff his inner daredevil.
“I have had to pull back on some fun stuff as diving became more serious. I still ride motorbikes. I used to skateboard as well but had to stop after I broke my wrist a couple of months before the world championships.”
Come Paris, Rousseau is banking on his French Olympic champion grandfather and French family ties to give him a tri-colour advantage.
“I am hoping my French background is going to work for me at the Paris Olympics. I think it is going to be a plus. I’m hoping to pick up some French fans, some more supporters. My French is ok. I grew up speaking French thanks to Mum – she is fluent, born in Paris. It will be pretty special for Mum going to the Paris Olympics to see me compete.”
It’s the same for Fox in the Paris Olympic canoe events. Competing in the French capital will feel right at home for the 29-year-old Marseille-born Australian champion.
Fox is familiar with the competition venue too – the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium – a state of the art complex hosting the paddle, rowing and whitewater events. “It’s been open for a few years so I’ve had the opportunity to train there and I’m looking forward to racing the Olympic test event there in October.
“I love the idea of the opening ceremony on the river Seine, and the vision of athletes competing in front of spectacular landmarks. It seems like it will be truly magical.”
Qualifying for Paris however will be tough – even for a dominant world number one like Fox. The criteria at the London World Championship qualifying event in September is one competitor, per event, per country. The additional X-factor for Fox is that one of her rivals is her younger sister Noemie.
“Hopefully my sister and I will both make it but it is very challenging. Maybe only one of us will. I am the world number one and dominant in both events (C1 & K1) and she’s trying to qualify by beating me. She’s often in my shadow but it’s her dream too.
We support each other in the quest and we train and compete alongside each other in the World Cups and the World Champs. But in the Olympics, it’ll just be one of us, one per country. It’s tough.”
Come what may, Fox said it was exciting knowing there’ll be Australian and French families in the crowd who may never have seen her or her sister compete live. “That will be special,” she said. “It’ll be like we’re at home.”
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.
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