Olympic gold medallist Jess Fox became the first paddler to win three gold medals at a single ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup when she won the canoe, kayak and kayak cross events at the recent regatta at Augsburg, Germany.
The Sydney University Boat Club legend and former SUSF Elite Athlete Program member won the canoe final on Saturday, the kayak final on Sunday and backed up on Monday to claim the kayak cross to take her World Cup gold medal tally to a record 51.
Fox, who will become the first Australian canoe slalom athlete to compete at four Olympics when she dips her oars in the water in Paris, had to overcome a tough start to win the kayak cross final.
After breezing through the qualification rounds, Fox finished in first place in the final ahead of Czech canoeist Tereza Kneblova and Great Britain’s 2023 World Champion Kimberley Woods (GBR).
“I feel incredible – this is so unexpected and I’m just so thrilled,” Fox told Canoe Australia. “You never know what can happen, especially in the Kayak Cross. My strategy was just to try to get a good start and to stay clear headed throughout and make the right decisions.
“I took it step by step and really enjoyed myself out there. It was challenging – the final started and it was just chaos, I had to really fight and adapt the whole way. Winning three gold medals in one weekend had never been done before – I can’t believe I’ve just done it.”
The Canoe Slalom World Cup season will now pause, with the next event to be the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The World Cup season will resume in Italy in September, with the World Cup Finals to be raced in Spain at the end of September.
Fox won silver in the slalom K1 (canoeing) as an 18-year-old at the 2012 London Olympic Games and silver in the same event at the Rio Di Janeiro Games in 2016. She topped that with gold in the slalom C1 (canoeing) and bronze in the slalom K1 at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
A product of Blaxland High School, she joined the Sydney University Boat Club when she came to the university to study for a degree in media/communications.
Her focus is now on the Paris Games.
