Fox sisters hail legacy from Brisbane 2032 Olympics

Comparisons with Paris and LA will be inevitable, but Jess and Noemie Fox want Brisbane to forge its own Olympic identity.

Jessica (left) and Noemie Fox say Brisbane’s Olympic legacy can rival Sydney’s.

Want proof that if you build the right facilities and create a world-class legacy, future Olympic champions may emerge?

Look no further than Jess Fox and her sister Noemie, Australia’s new Olympic darling siblings.

Born in France, they are as true-blue as kangaroos and meat pies after emigrating to Australia when they were toddlers.

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But if it wasn’t for the Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, it’s a safe bet they would never have made the move after their father Richard – a multi canoe world champion for Britain – was hired as Australia’s national head coach for the Games.

And if it wasn’t for construction of the state-of-the-art Penrith Whitewater Stadium, it’s less likely they would have made western Sydney their family home for a quarter of a century and gone on to be icons of the sport, under the watchful guidance of their mother Myriam, an Olympic medallist for France.

As Fox told this masthead: “I’m a product of the Sydney Olympic legacy.

“We’re still feeling the impact of the Sydney Olympics, this 2024 generation.

“Some of them weren’t born yet, but I was definitely one of the kids who was in Sydney and still feel inspired by what happened in Sydney.”

This story is part of The Courier-Mail’s annual Future Brisbane series advocating for a focus on the right legacy outcomes from the hosting of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. You can read all our coverage here

With six Olympic medals, including three gold, already in her collection, Fox is a bona fide sporting rock star but a long way from being finished in her chosen sport of paddling.

Still just 30, she’s planning to compete at her fifth Olympics at Los Angeles in 2028 and possibly a sixth at Brisbane in 2032.

Jessica and Noemie Fox with their gold medals in Paris

Australia’s flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremony that took place on the Seine River in Paris, she’s confident Brisbane will deliver an unforgettable Games as long as organisers can learn from recent hosts about the best ways to maximise venues, both new and existing.

“London did that really well,” she said. “Tokyo, with Covid, I think that was a unique Games we can’t really compare, but what I saw worked well in Paris was the way they used their venues and brought the culture and sport together.

“I also loved the Champions Park idea where it’s bringing the athletes outside of their venues into public spaces for everyone to enjoy and be able to celebrate them as well.

“We don’t have the Eiffel Tower in Brisbane, but I’m sure we can do something like that.”

The daunting reality for Brisbane’s organisers is that both Paris and Los Angeles are going to be a hard act to follow.

Blessed with jaw-dropping monuments, the 2000-year-old French capital provided a stunning backdrop that few cities in the world could match, Brisbane included.

And the Americans provided a stunning preview of what LA will be like during the handover at the Closing Ceremony in Paris, when Tom Cruise abseiled from the roof of the Stade de France then rode off on a motorbike.

Fox knows the comparisons with Paris and LA are unavoidable, but says they’re futile because while Queensland can learn a lot from previous hosts, the Sunshine State ultimately needs to stamp its own identity on 2032 rather than just cut and paste.

“Everyone’s going to compare. It’s natural to do, but we don’t have to do it like Paris,” she said.

“We have to do it the way that suits Australia and suits Brisbane and suits Queensland and that’s going to look different.

“LA is going to look different to Paris and Brisbane will look different to LA, and that’s not a bad thing. I think that’s something to celebrate and to do it the way that works for us.

Noemie Fox and Jess Fox at last week’s Sport Australia Hall of Fame gala dinner at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

“You want that legacy and the infrastructure and the event delivery so that Queensland becomes a worldwide event stage, not just the Olympics, but for future events as well.

“It’s exciting that we’ve got this runway to Brisbane with different world championships in a variety of different sports or World Cup events coming to Australia. That needs to feed into Brisbane and post Games.”

As an elite athlete, it’s perhaps not surprising that Fox hopes Brisbane’s organisers will keep athletes at the heart of their planning.

But she said her experiences from London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris had also taught her that the Games are about more than competitors and the medals that are won and lost; they are also a lifetime highlight for the local communities and volunteers and a chance for host countries to showcase what really makes them tick.

“The Olympics and Paralympics, of course, it’s about those performances and the stories of the Games,” Fox said.

“But aside from venues, it’s the atmosphere that gets people going, that energy that you don’t feel anywhere else except for during those Olympic and Paralympic weeks, people still talk about it.

“They might remember certain performances, of course, but they’ll remember the way they felt and the way the Olympics made them feel and the positive energy and inspiration that comes from it.

“I think Australia does that really well with sport. We love sport and we’ve got a beautiful country that we can showcase. We’ve got incredible people.

“People still talk about the Sydney Olympics for that party vibe or that energy that they felt during that time. So I think that’s something that we need to celebrate from our people at all levels, whether that’s the volunteers, the athletes, the fans, the community, the schools, the kids, everyone is involved in creating that energy. I think that will be one of our strong points.”