Jess Fox reveals emotional moment watching sister Noemie Fox secure Paris Olympics quota
Australian paddling great Jess Fox revealed her heartrate soared to a staggering 185 beats per minute in an emotional moment that she said was “up there with winning the Olympics.”
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Paddling great Jess Fox has revealed her heartrate soared to a staggering 185 beats per minute while watching sister Noemie attempt to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Fox may be heading into her fourth Games in just over a month, have an Olympic gold among the four medals tucked in her pocket, and be the overwhelming favourite to become Australia’s opening ceremony flag bearer – a role she confirmed she would accept if it’s offered – but she said seeing her sister secure her own place in Paris was one of the best moments of her life.
The Fox sisters will race together at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in the newly introduced kayak cross after Noemie secured her quota spot at the World Cup event in Prague just over a week ago.
“It was honestly probably up there with winning the Olympics for me,” Fox said in a conference call with Australian media on Tuesday night after her first training session on the Olympic course.
“It was one of the best days of my life.
“It was so challenging – I think it’s such a massive build-up for her to come into that race.
“There were only three quota spots available and the kayak cross, a lot can happen, a lot can go wrong, and you’ve just got to try and make it through each round until you get to the final – and then you’ve got to go for it.
“I’ve never been so nervous being a spectator at that competition.”
While Fox normally competes in kayak cross herself, allowing an outlet for her own nervous energy, this time around she was on the sidelines supporting her sister.
“This time I was just a supporter, I was just there as her sister supporting her and it was so hard,” she said.
“My heart rate when she was racing was 185, which is nuts.”
It’s about the same as Fox’s maximum heartrate while paddling, although she was running alongside the slalom course in Prague and yelling support.
“I remember in the final when she came out of the last upstream gate, I was just screaming – I lost my voice afterwards – and crying because she had done it.
“It was a really hard thing for her to be able to qualify and she believed, and she worked so hard and she deserves it so much.
“So it was just so much emotion and joy and love and happiness for her achieving that dream to qualify the spot.”
Noemie, the younger Fox sister by almost three years, is not yet officially selected to the Australian team but having won the quota spot, will be named to the canoe slalom team ahead of the Games.
“At the finish line, I jumped in the water and gave her a massive hug. It was just all the tears and emotion came out.”
It had been a stressful period for the Fox clan after Roger Fox – father of Jess and Noemie’s dad Richard, an Olympic slalom representative for Great Britain – died last week.
Roger was planning to be in Paris to watch his granddaughters compete and it was a bittersweet World Cup in Poland for Fox at the weekend, competing through sorrow, while becoming the first athlete in history to win 50 individual titles.
“We’ve had emotional highs and lows in the last two weeks,” Fox said.
“My grandpa, my dad’s dad, he was one of our biggest fans. He passed away last Sunday.
“But what was really beautiful was that he knew that Noemie had qualified before he passed away, so it gave us some joy and some peace knowing that he knew, because he would have been so proud and so happy knowing that she had achieved that dream.
“And yet he was meant to be in Paris. He had booked the tickets, he had even extended his trip to include the kite cross events.
“Originally he wasn’t going to stay for the kayak cross but he knew that Noemie might qualify and so he had extended that, so it is really devastating knowing that he won’t be there and how much he was looking forward to it.
“But he will have front row seats and he’ll be with us and cheering us on from up there.”
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