To mark 100 days from the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Nine.com.au asked you what your favourite Olympic memories were in a survey. The response was overwhelming! We chose 50 of them to re-live, one a day, before new memories are made in Paris. Scroll on for today's memory.
For about a decade, Jess Fox had been the best canoe slalom athlete in the world, but like some other champion sportspeople, was yet to get her hands on Olympic gold.
That changed for the French-born Australian in Tokyo on July 29, 2021, when she burst over the finish line to capture gold in the first women's canoe single (C1) competition staged at an Olympic Games.
Over the years leading up to that sublime moment in Tokyo, Fox had won 11 world championship titles, as well as kayak single (K1) silver at London 2012, K1 bronze at Rio 2016 and more K1 bronze in Japan, only two days before her crowning moment.
Watch the video at the top of the page to see Jess Fox win Olympic gold in Tokyo!
When she was left to collect yet another minor Olympic medal at the Tokyo Games, even her mum and coach, Olympic bronze medallist Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, found herself asking if gold would always elude her daughter.
But after a gruelling 65-second battle on Tokyo's white water, full of punishing twists and desperate surges through upstream and downstream gates, the tenacious paddler charged over the finish line to win gold comfortably.
The Penrith product completed the course three seconds quicker than British rival Mallory Franklin, who claimed silver, and six seconds faster than German opponent Andrea Herzog, who took home bronze.
Watch every moment, every medal of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now. Plus, every event streaming ad free, live and on demand with 4K on Stan Sport.
When Fox shot over the finish line and realised she'd clocked the fastest time of the final, she let out the most blissful shriek of her life, slapped the water, punched the air and shed tears of delight.
On the top step of the podium, she leapt for joy and shed more tears.
"Relief, pure joy, it's all the emotions today," Fox said when asked how the moment felt.
"It was such a massive 48 hours after the kayak event.
"Even though I've been competing in both events for many years, it's very different at the Olympic Games.
"There's a lot of emotion involved, and it was … taxing mentally, emotionally and physically.
"I'm thrilled to come back from that … and win."
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.