‘It’s been a whirlwind’: Homecoming queen Jessica Fox on winning gold and her glamorous post-Olympics new look
Winning two gold medals in Paris saw Jessica Fox crowned Australia’s most successful individual Olympic athlete. Now, she reflects on her achievements and charts a course for her future.
Stellar
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Had canoeist Jessica Fox written a script outlining the course of her 2024 Paris Olympic campaign, she still wouldn’t have imagined the storybook plot that unfolded in France.
Paris was always going to be special for the French-born Fox, who moved to Australia with her family when she was four, but she couldn’t have anticipated just how special it would end up being.
“If you’d said to me, ‘You would be the Australian flag bearer at the opening ceremony, you would leave with two gold medals, your sister would win a gold medal and then you would be elected onto the IOC [International Olympic Committee],’ I’d say, ‘You’re dreaming. There’s no way all of those things will happen and all fall into place,’” the 30-year-old tells Stellar with a laugh.
The thing is, that’s exactly what happened – to the astonishment of Fox and the delight of millions of Australians watching at home.
Along with Hockeyroos player Eddie Ockenden, Fox was charged with representing Australia’s 461 athletes and carrying the national flag along the River Seine as they joined 80 or so of their teammates in the 6km boat parade for the opening ceremony.
The next afternoon, with her mother and coach Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi by her side and her father Richard Fox calling all the action in the Nine Network commentary box, she embarked on a winning streak that would see her take out the gold in both the K1 kayak and C1 canoe slalom events.
A few days later, her younger sister Noémie took home gold in the women’s slalom kayak cross event, meaning the Fox siblings won more gold medals at the 2024 Olympics than Denmark, South Africa and more than 170 other national Olympic teams.
Then, to complete the family’s run of successes over their two weeks in Paris, Fox became one of just four athletes from around the world to be elected onto the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission, where she will give athletes a voice on the committee for her eight-year term.
“It’s been the absolute best experience of my life, no doubt,” says Fox, her voice husky after an exhausting few weeks.
After being away since May, she’s fresh off a chartered Qantas flight that brought athletes from Paris to Perth and then Sydney.
Instead of heading straight to the western Sydney suburb of Penrith where she lives, the eternally professional champion has made a detour to a studio in the city, where she is shooting her cover for Stellar.
“It’s so funny to get off the plane and come straight here, but at the same time, this is lovely,” she says. “It’s been a whirlwind. I feel this immense pride and joy and disbelief about what happened over the last two weeks. It [was] just a perfect Olympics. But on the other side of it, I feel absolutely exhausted. And I can’t wait to be home.”
The magnitude of what she’s achieved still hasn’t hit home for Fox and she finds
it impossible to pick one moment to reign above them all.
But if there’s one thing that will truly make these Games unforgettable for her, it’s that she was able to share them with her 27-year-old sister, Noémie.
“We didn’t know if she was going to even compete at the Olympics until a month before. She had a very slim window to qualify,” explains Fox.
“It’s really tough to just pick one moment [to highlight]. But she was there for all the moments.”
It started with that boat cruise down the Seine, alongside fellow members of Team Australia. Fox jokes that her sister was nervous for her to accept the flag-bearing honour because of what the weight of that expectation might mean for the competition.
“In our sport, there haven’t been many flag bearers that have gone on and won or had successful Games,” Fox tells Stellar. “So there was that superstition in the back of my mind. But there was no way I wasn’t going to do it!”
Following the opening ceremony, Fox listened to a Harry Potter audiobook to help her wind down, and then focused her attention on her first race the next day.
The kayak slalom is arguably her best event and she took home silver at her first Olympics as an 18-year-old at the 2012 London Olympics. But since then, the gold had eluded her. At Tokyo in 2021, she was the fastest down the water; however, receiving time penalties meant she came home with bronze.
“It wasn’t the performance I wanted,” she recalls of the race in Tokyo. “So I was really disappointed – and quite devastated, to be honest.”
That added to the pressure she felt going into the race in Paris, and because her run in the semi-final heat wasn’t the best, her positioning in the final meant she was one of the first down the water. She then had an anxious wait as she watched seven subsequent competitors attempt to beat her blistering and perfect run.
“Sitting on that start line, I was absolutely nervous. But I also felt liberated in a way because of the way the race unfolded. I also felt ready and confident and super calm and focused, and that’s the best feeling in the world,” she says.
“I’m really proud of the way I channelled that pressure and the nerves.”
No-one could catch Fox, not even her mother, who went viral soon after the race in a video that showed her running along the bank as her daughter made her way down the whitewater course.
Recalling the exhilarating moment, Myriam tells Stellar, “What you see in that footage is me starting out as a coach watching my athlete race and moving with her through every gate. Then towards the end of her run I am more in ‘mum mode’ – full of joy and pride to see my daughter achieve her dream.”
And achieve it she did, winning the gold as a nation of fans – including those cheering on from her western Sydney alma mater, Blaxland High School – fell even more in love with her. But Fox wasn’t finished.
Next was the canoe slalom, which she admits she went into feeling unsettled. “It’s tough when you get on a massive high and you’ve got to refocus,” she explains.
“I was crying on the podium, hugging my friends and family … but then I was really worried that I would feel quite flat for the next day.”
Her concerns proved unfounded; a few days later, she defended her C1 gold from Tokyo, taking her Olympic medal total to six and in the process becoming Australia’s most successful individual Olympic athlete as well as the most decorated athlete, man or woman, in the history of canoe-slalom.
But if there was one race she felt the most nervous about, it was her sister’s. The Fox family is tightly knit, no doubt because when her parents – both Olympic canoeists themselves – moved to Australia to coach in 1998, they had no extended family Down Under. So the family unit, and paddling, became each other’s everything.
“We’ve always had a great relationship with my parents and I’m so thankful for that. Going through all this together, of course, it’s going to bring you closer,” Fox says.
“But my grandma, on Mum’s side, was always instilling in us that family is everything and that me and my sister would never fight. And if we did, [we must] always make up.”
Of course, the pair bicker – they’re sisters, after all. But Fox says it’s to Noémie that she always turns in times of struggle, and vice versa: “She’ll put me in my place if I do something wrong and I’m the same with her. We give each other advice, whether it’s frivolous stuff or important stuff. She’s the one I count on. I’m so grateful to have a close relationship with her, because I do know people who aren’t close with their siblings. And I can’t imagine that.”
Yet for a long time, the younger Fox’s qualification for the Olympics hinged on whether or not she could beat the number-one slalom kayaker: her big sister.
“It’s always been tough for her, sort of being the spectator. There have probably been moments where she’s put on a brave face, even if she’s felt really disappointed,” says Fox. “I’m grateful for the way she’s always been so gracious. She’s my biggest supporter; she’s always been so proud of me and my success.”
Paris was the first time the kayak cross was included at an Olympics, and it meant Australia could send two competitors. Enter both Fox sisters. While they don’t often find themselves competing directly against each other, that became a reality during the heat.
The siblings had worked out ways to not intentionally block each other on the course, but Fox says she instructed Noémie that if she needed to attack, she should, telling her, “I’m your big sister. I will forgive you.”
On reflection, Fox says, “I think we’re mature enough to realise that’s the sport. At the end of the day, we’re sisters, and that’s always going to be the strongest bond we have.”
In that race, it was Noémie who was the victor. And while she had previously stated that her goal was simply to make it into the semi-finals, that meant she was then tasked with bringing home the gold. And she did.
“I was really nervous for her,” Fox says. “My heart was 188 following her down the water – it was 185 when I raced. When the roles were reversed and I was the one supporting her? I’ve never felt more proud and more joy.”
Such was the family’s delight that Fox and her mother didn’t even wait until Noémie had emerged from the water to give her their congratulatory hugs.
“To see her win the gold and race so brilliantly was an incredible moment for our whole family and team,” says Myriam. “So much so that we all jumped in the water.”
To top off an already career-changing games, Fox found herself elected to the IOC as an athlete representative. So does this mean politics could be in her post-racing future? “I don’t see myself in politics,” Fox answers.
“But in saying that, this role is a little bit of the sports politics/sports administration. I get to support and listen to athletes and be part of the preparation for Brisbane 2032, which is really exciting.”
While the welfare of athletes at the Brisbane Games is some time away, Fox is already agitating for the public to better appreciate that Olympic-level competitors aren’t bulletproof. She refers specifically to Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn – known as “Raygun” in competition – whose performance received negative attention.
“Any athlete is putting themselves in a vulnerable position to try and perform once every four years at the Olympics,” Fox says.
“I’m thankful everything aligned and I was able to perform under pressure, but I could have come fifth or I could come 10th and then that’s seen as failure. It’s about being mindful of when someone hasn’t performed as expected or to the expectations of the public or the media, there is a human behind that. We’ve all had failures. We’ve all had moments where we’ve felt embarrassed or we’ve felt disappointed. Just be kind.”
She might not have a necklace bearing a diamond-encrusted goat – symbolising a “greatest of all time” status – like American gymnast Simone Biles, but Fox has achieved everything possible in her sport.
Which begs the question, why keep competing, as she has revealed she plans to do in Europe later this year? “I love competition. I felt like the motivation will come back because I love to be able to challenge myself to see how good I can be,” she explains.
In the meantime, Fox may take a break from rigorous training but that doesn’t mean a break from the water.
“I’m lucky I’m in a sport where I can get on the water and play. For me, paddling is fun and enjoyable and it’s a good outlet.”
Fox didn’t mark her 30th birthday in June with any grand celebration, and has joked that perhaps a gold-themed party could be the remedy after the excitement of the past few months. After all, achieving the highest of highs could bring about an Olympic-sized comedown.
“You have to be prepared for that,” she admits.
“But if I do feel low, it’s about reminding myself just how loved and supported and lucky I am. Because I get to do what I love, and I’ve had this incredible experience. And if I do feel that way, more than anything, I’m not afraid to reach out to people.”
And while her Olympics script might have ended up reading like a triumphant story that’s tailor-made for Hollywood, Fox wants to be remembered for more than just the hardware she has brought home.
“The gold medals, the record-breaking things … [those] are very special and something that I’m incredibly proud of,” she starts. “But I hope my legacy is that if people have met me, it’s that I’ve left them feeling good, and feeling inspired that they can do whatever they set their mind to. Whatever their Olympics is, whatever their dream is, [that] they could work hard and achieve it.”
See the full shoot with Jessica Fox in the latest issue of Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.
Originally published as ‘It’s been a whirlwind’: Homecoming queen Jessica Fox on winning gold and her glamorous post-Olympics new look
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