Jessica Fox

Born to Olympian and multiple world champion paddle parents, it was expected that Jessica Fox would know her way around the water, but no one could have predicted she would become the world’s greatest paddler before she hit 25.

Jessica underlined her greatness when she won gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. But her list of impressive achievements includes 22 World Championship medals, including 10 world titles, four team gold and 11 overall individual World Cup titles.

Growing up in Marseille, France, Jessica had a membership to the Marseille Mazargues Kayak Club when she was six months old.

She moved to Penrith, NSW when she was four, with Jessica and her younger sister Noemi both following in the footsteps of their parents - Barcelona 1992’s Richard Fox, who retired with five individual world titles for Great Britain and dual Olympian, bronze medallist and coach, Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi.

Jessica took up paddling as an 11-year-old, but didn’t have any desire to compete in it, saying she didn’t really enjoy it as a child. It wasn’t until she broke her arm and the physio suggested she try kayaking as rehab that she found her love of the white water.

The youngster’s prowess on the water was evident early on and with that, her mum started to formally coach her competitively.

When she was 16, Jessica took out the C1 and K1 Junior World Championships in 2010 and K1 gold at the Singapore 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, just one year after she made her senior international debut.

Not only successful on the water, Jessica was also putting in the hard yards at Blaxland High School. She finished her HSC year with an ATAR score of 99.1, came first in NSW in PDHPE, achieved band 6 in all her subjects and was named Dux of her school.

After finishing her studies in 2011, Jessica found herself atop the junior world podium again the following year, adding another gold in K1 before making her Olympic debut at London 2012.

Jessica won silver as the youngest woman in canoe slalom to ever medal at an Olympics.

The then 18-year-old’s medal win had an additional silver lining. Not only did she recover from initially capsizing in the heats, Jessica defeated 44-year-old Czech paddler, Štěpánka Hilgertová, who had beaten her mother to a K1 gold medal at Atlanta 1996, 16 years earlier.

After London 2012, Jessica collected three U23 World Championships in C1 and two in K1. She created history in 2014, becoming the first woman to ever win two events (K1 and C1) at the U23 World Championship in Penrith and at the World Championships in the USA (for eight career U23 World Championship gold medals).

Jessica then contested her second Olympic Games, Rio 2016, where she once again found the podium.

She qualified in fifth place in the semi-final before producing a superb final run that moved her into gold-medal position, but her lead was short-lived after a two-second penalty knocked her back to silver. With four paddlers still to compete, Fox ended up winning bronze.

The following year Jessica won a world title along with several gold and silver C1 and K1 world cup medals. She also added “Canoeist of the Year” and “NSW Athlete of the Year” to her crown, but Jessica was still just getting started.

In 2018, after winning a record-breaking six consecutive World Cup titles and finishing her season undefeated, Jessica became the first athlete, male or female to achieve the “triple double”, taking out both the C1 and K1 titles across three World Cup events.

Her achievements saw her surpass the records set by her parents and earned her the title of “World’s Greatest Paddler" with Jessica also being awarded the Sportswoman of the Year at the World Paddle Awards, the Sport NSW and NSWIS Athlete of the Year and the AIS Female Athlete of the year alongside her mum, who was named Coach of the Year.

At the Tokyo Games, Jessica went into the K1 final as the favourite and fastest qualifier. However, although she recorded the quickest time, two time penalties saw her relegated to the bronze medal position.

However, just days later she lined up in the final of the C1 Canoe Slalom – which was debuting as a women’s event in Tokyo.

Jessica qualified first, recording a time of 110.59 seconds, and in the final she watched as Britain’s Mallory Franklin recorded a lightning-fast time of 108.68. What happened next has been described by some as Australia’s greatest sporting moment of 2021.

Jessica was last competitor on the course, her face set in look of steely determination, a gold medal to win or lose. Without incurring a single penalty, Jessica delivered a master class with a technically perfect run to finish three seconds clear and claim gold.

“I was trying to look at the big screen, but I had water in my eyes and my vision was blurry,” she said afterwards. “Then I saw the number one next to my name. I’d won. It was just pure emotion. I think I screamed. There was just so much relief. It makes me a bit emotional to think about it again. Finally, I’d done the run I’d always wanted to do.”

After Tokyo, Jessica continued to dominate on the World Cup circuit and in August 2023 she scored a major milestone when she won her 10th individual canoe slalom world title in the women’s K1 in London.

At the venue where she won silver at the 2012 Games, Jessica cemented her status as slalom canoeing’s greatest paddler.