Fox Stacks Medals at Paris Olympics

If there was any question as to whether Australia’s Jessica Fox is the greatest canoeist ever – not just among the Australian and Jewish communities, but in sporting history – the Paris Summer Olympics cemented her legacy as such.

The 30-year-old French-born Aussie — she was born in Marseille, France, but moved to Australia at four years old — delivered a resounding performance in her home country by capturing a pair of gold medals last week, first in the kayak slalom event and a few days later in the canoe single competition. Fox, a four-time Olympian who served as one of her country’s flag bearers in the opening ceremonies, now has six career medals to her name (three gold, one silver, and two bronze), making her the most accomplished Olympic slalom canoeist of all-time and the only one of her countrymen who’s taken home a half-dozen Olympic medals.

In a career-defining race last Wednesday at Paris’ Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, Fox posted a sparkling time of 1 minute, 1.06 seconds to edge the German silver medalist Elena Lilik by 2.48 seconds. No stranger to attaining glory in the women’s canoe single competition, Fox won gold in the event at the last go-round of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

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“I don’t know how I did that,” Fox told reporters after her first-place finish last Wednesday. “The atmosphere was incredible. I looked out, and I saw so much green and yellow, so many Aussie flags, and I think that was the best run I’ve ever done. I knew once I had got through the hard moves, it was about trying to get to the finish and holding it together and wow!”

Second to last to go, Fox zipped down the course with pinpoint precision, brushing off a two-second touch penalty and deftly navigating the upstream and downstream currents to make history.

“This has been a dream Games,” Fox exclaimed following the emotionally charged race. “As an athlete, you put in the blood, sweat and tears, and the team invests in you. For it to come down to one day every four years, and then to actually pull it off, is the best feeling in the world.

“It does not always go your way, and I have experienced that as well. For it to turn out this way, it has been the perfect Games, and it’s so magical to be here in Paris.”

Her magical Olympic run began on July 28 with a gutsy performance in the women’s kayak slalom in which she shook off a subpar semifinal performance to blow past the field in the final round.

“It means everything to me right now,” an elated Fox declared after her first gold medal. “I think it’s been years and years of chasing this dream of getting really close and persevering and picking myself back up.”

A first-place finish in the women’s kayak slalom event had eluded Fox for years. As a teen in the London Games in 2012, she notched a silver medal before securing third place finishes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016 and during the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

But there’s more to the story than Fox’s career-long chase of gold in the whitewater event. Her Jewish mother and coach, Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, a world-class paddler in her own right, competed in the kayak slalom for France during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. She returned home with a bronze medal that summer, four years after not placing in the 1992 Barcelona Games. Even though the younger Fox’s latest triumph added to Australia’s mantle, it was also a nod to her French background.

“It’s very special with this French connection,” noted Fox, whose sister Noemie is also an Olympic paddler and actually bested Jessica in Sunday’s kayak cross event. “I’ve been chasing this for a few years. And my mom before me was chasing this gold medal in ‘92 and ‘96. So, to achieve it in Paris is just very special for our family.”

Looking ahead to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles when the Summer Olympics return stateside for the first time since ‘96 in Atlanta, Fox may have an opportunity to build on her Olympic resume – and carve out her mark on the Mount Rushmore of Jewish Olympic legends. With six medals, Fox has already matched gymnast Aly Raisman and is within striking distance of swimmer Dara Torres, who won a total of 12 medals and retired after the 2000 Olympics, and swimmer Mark Spitz, who received 11 Olympic medals throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

But for now, Fox, the first woman to medal in the kayak event in four consecutive Olympics, can soak up the exhilaration of dominating yet again on the grandest of stages.

As Fox-Jerusalmi remarked when speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last week, “in the sport of canoe slalom, she won’t be beaten by anybody any time soon.”