Thomas Green

A young Thomas Green always loved the water and sport. He started kayaking at the age of 10 at the Currumbin Creek Canoe Club when he saw his older brother and sister having fun as they learnt to paddle.

“I’m not sure if it was my fear of falling in and getting bitten by a shark, or my fierce competitiveness with my brother and sister that saw me take off and never look back,” Thomas said.

With a family background in surf lifesaving, Thomas was never far from the water. Together with his brother Lachy and sister Britt, Thomas competed at the 2012 Outrigging World Championships in 2012.

Thomas was enjoying “having a bit of a play in the kayak around surf lifesaving racing and training” but was encouraged by kayaking stalwart John Newtown to take flatwater paddling seriously.

Within weeks, he was competing at the Australian Canoe Sprint Championships and won 11 medals in his division, including three gold.

Five months after that first flatwater paddle, Thomas was selected to represent Australia at the 2015 Olympic Hopes Regatta in Poland. He won a silver medal in the K1 500 metres and a bronze medal in the K1 1000m.

Returning to open water competition in 2017, he completed a stunning comeback at the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships. Thomas had established a tidy lead in the under-18 surf ski final but made a wrong turn and found himself 150 metres behind the pack. A determined Thomas changed course and won the race in a photo finish. “I paddled like I’ve never paddled before.”

With the 2020 Olympics coming into focus, he partnered with Joel McKitterick and won gold in the K2 1000 at 2018 Under 23 World Championships. It was a breakthrough year as Thomas made the leap to elite competition and represented Australia at a senior World Championships for the first time, where he finished fourth in the K4 500 and eighth in the K1 500.

In 2019, Thomas became a dual Under 23 world champion when he won gold at the U23 World Championships in the K1 1000m and K4 500 (with teammates Jackson Collins, Riley Fitzsimmons and Jean van der Westhuyzen).

He went on to finish fourth in the K1 500 at the World Championships.

Thomas was the stand-out paddler at the first of two Olympic selection events, taking home the win in the K1 1000, K1 500, K2 1000 and U23 K2 1000.

He was just as dominant at the 2020 Australian Canoe Sprint Championships realising his Olympic dream after winning gold in K1 1000. In a field boasting Olympic champions Murray Stewart and Thomas's mentor Ken Wallace, the young paddler showed class to win in a time of 3:36.15, which was 1.10 seconds in front of Jean van der Westhuyzen and Rio 2016 Olympian Jordan Wood.

Thomas made his Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, competing in the K1 1000m and K2 1000m disciplines.

In the individual K1 1000m event, he would impress in the opening heat race, qualifying for the semi-finals in second place with a time of 3:39.492. He would continue his form, finishing the following semi-final in third place, with an improved time of 3:24.612.

This would earn Thomas a spot in the A Finals of the event and the possibility of a debut Olympic medal. He would unfortunately fall short in the final stage, with a time of 3:28.360 and an overall 7th placing. 

Competing alongside fellow Australian Jean van der Westhuyzen in the K2 1000m, the pair would show their ambition in their opening heat to finish first with an impressive time of 3:08.773 earning, them an automatic spot in the semi-finals.

The pair would continue their dominance, finishing their semi-final once again in first place with a time of 3:17.077, the fastest of any pair in the event. 

The Aussie boys performed when it mattered most in winning the final with a time of 3:15.280, earning Thomas his first Olympic gold medal in his debut Olympic Games.

Heading into the 2024 Olympics, Thomas and Jean have been forced to change direction. The K2 1000m event has been dumped for Paris, with the more explosive K2 500m event in its place.

The pair won a bronze at the 2022 world titles in the shorter event and finished fourth at the 2023 world championships. Although they are still adapting to the event, Thomas is excited by the challenge the K2 500m poses.

“The challenge of the new event is great. It’s keeping us on our toes,” he said. “It’s fast and very exciting.

“To be honest, I think it might suit us a little better. Jean and I are a bit more explosive.”

The pair continue to compete against each other in the K1. “Both of us are racers,” Thomas said. “We race each other in training and when it comes to showtime, we want the best for each other but there’s like a sibling rivalry.’’

Thomas said the K1 1000m is unfinished business for him after finishing off the podium in Tokyo.