‘Eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner’: Olympian Alyce Wood’s sledge

IF you’ve ever heard anyone say they’re happy with placing fourth, I can guarantee you they’re lying.

IF you’ve ever heard anyone say they’re happy with placing fourth, I can guarantee you they’re lying.

As an athlete, when I’m interviewed by media after a race I always try and look at my result with a glass half full approach.

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No matter what, there is always a positive I can pull out of even the most disappointing outcomes but at the end of the day I always want more, and unless I’m standing on top of that dais I will never be 100 per cent satisfied.

Gold Coast kayakers Riley Fitzsimmons and Jordan Wood. Picture: Suzsanna Vekassy

I bet my husband, Jordan Wood, feels the exact same.

If you picked up Monday’s Bulletin you would have read how sick of finishing fourth Jordan is, and I bet his K2/K4 partner Riley Fitzsimmons is in the same boat…literally.

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Fourth place, affectionately known as receiving the chocolate medal, is their most consistent international result.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good block of chocolate (or five), but this is a bittersweet type of chocolate that I could live without.

In 2015 they had two fourth places in the K4 1000 event at both the under-23 and Senior World Championships and then in 2016 at the Rio Olympic Games they placed, you guessed it, fourth.

Don’t worry though, in 2017 they had a breakthrough year winning their maiden World Championship title, but ever since then they’ve been back eating chocolates for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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With the taste of gold still a recent memory and the disappointment of chocolate still fresh in their mouths, I know they will be doing everything in their power to eat like kings again.

I guess it’s kind of like the difference between a deliciously smooth block of Lindt chocolate and those dry home brand Easter eggs you get from your school teachers at Christmas time.

Under no circumstances do you want to double dip into that chocolate egg box again, and I can promise that when you get fourth at one Olympic Games, you don’t go back to get fourth again.

Kayakers Ken Wallace, Riley Fitzsimmons, Murray Stewart and Jordan Wood. Picture: Balint Vekassy

With 448 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the 2021 Olympic Games, 352 more days than originally planned (ouch!), the boys will be doing everything in their power to ensure they hit that top step when it counts the most.

Right now they’re focused on resting, recovering and enjoying some unstructured training to ensure they’re mentally and physically ready to hit the ground running in what will be the biggest season of their lives.