Pole position: Historic gold hat-trick the ‘perfect result’ for Fox before Olympics

Australian paddler Jessica Fox wasn’t sure whether she should compete at the Canoe Slalom World Cup in Poland over the weekend.

But when she crossed the finish line in her final race in Krakow on Sunday, she had claimed her 49th, 50th and 51st World Cup gold medals by sweeping the field in all three disciplines, the first paddler in history – male or female – to do so.

Jessica Fox leads the way in the kayak cross semi-finals in Poland.Credit: Getty Images

“I was super proud with how I raced, never could have imagined it would finish up with three gold. I built into the weekend and then sort of found the feeling,” Fox said.

“At the start of the day, if you’d asked me how I was going to go, I would have said I’m feeling flat and tired, but I sort of got into it and really found the aggression and the tactics and enjoyed my racing.

“Three from three was the perfect result, and now we’ve got less than 40 days until Paris, so obviously that was the best way to end the World Cup block and now we can get into some training.”

Fox said it was the ideal preparation for Paris 2024, which starts at the end of next month. She returns to the Olympics as the reigning C1 gold medallist.

Jessica Fox competing in Krakow.Credit: EPA

“[It’s a] great lead in [for the Olympics],” she said. “You know, three World Cup events, I was actually not sure if I was going to compete in Krakow. We were sort of thinking about the plan, what would be the best plan, and in the end it was a great race to be at.”

Fox had won 77 World Cup medals before the event in Poland, but had claimed a kayak cross gold only once, in 2022.

The kayak cross, where four paddlers compete on the course at the same time, makes its Olympic debut in Paris.

The physical and aggressive nature of the group event makes it difficult to predict, Fox said, but the win in Poland has given her the confidence to compete in all three events in Paris. There is a possibility she could claim a trio of Games gold medals.

“With the kayak [K1] and the canoe [C1], they’ve been my sort of pet events for I don’t know how many years, but the kayak cross is fresh,” she said. “It’s new for everyone, and every competition we see new athletes break through, we see different tactics come out and everyone is sort of building their confidence and their skill set in this event.

“For me, I know that anything can happen in the kayak cross. Yes, I’ve won the last race, but I could also be out in the first round at the next race. It’s just so dependent on how the race unfolds, your decision-making, a little bit of luck as well.

“It will be after the kayak and the canoe event in Paris, and so I think I’ll be building off my performances in those events, and also just managing the load, managing the fatigue that comes with it, but definitely coming into Paris now with those results that I’ve had and the experience that I’ve had in the kayak cross, I think I’ve definitely got more confidence.”

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