Jessica Fox (canoeist)

Fox was born in Marseille, France, and when she was four years old, she moved to the suburb of Penrith, in Sydney, with her family.^[8][9][10] Fox is Jewish,^{[11][12][13][14]} as is her mother,^[12][15][16] whereas her father is not.^[17] Her parents are Richard Fox and Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, who both competed as canoeists at the Olympics: her father for Great Britain at the 1992 Games, and her mother for France at the 1996 Games, where she won a bronze medal.^{[8][9][18][19]} Her father is Second Vice President of the International Canoe Federation, as well as Australian Canoeing's high-performance manager, and a five-time world champion.^{[9][10][18][19][20]} Her younger sister Noemie Fox is also a world and Olympic champion slalom canoeist, and her aunt Rachel Crosbee is a former world championship slalom canoe silver medalist.^[21]

Fox attended Leonay Public School and then Blaxland High School, where she completed her HSC year in 2011 by ranking first in New South Wales for PDHPE, and achieved an ATAR score of 99.1. She studied in the Elite Athlete Program at the University of Sydney,^[22] where she is working on a degree in media/communications. She is studying for a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) at Swinburne Online. She is bilingual in English and French.^[9][10]

Fox suffered a back injury that impacted her performance in 2012.^[18][19]

Fox races in K1, C1 and Kayak Cross events and is coached by her mother, Myriam.^[10][18][19] She started in the sport in 2005 by canoeing on the Nepean River.^[9][10] She has a scholarship and is affiliated with the Australian Institute of Sport and the New South Wales Institute of Sport.^[10] In club competitions, she represents the Penrith Valley Canoe Club.^[10]

In September 2009, Fox made her Australian senior national team bid.^[10] She competed at the 2009 ICF World Ranking in Merano, Italy, finishing third in the K1 event.^[10] At the 2009 AYOF event in Penrith, New South Wales, she finished first in the women's K1 event.^[10]

Fox placed 5th in the K1 event and won a bronze medal in the C1 event at the 2010 World Championships in Tacen.^[23] At the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore, she won the gold in the girls' K1 slalom event.^[9][18] At the 2010 Junior World Championships in Foix, she won gold in K1, and won the inaugural C1 event at that level. She won her first World Cup by taking out the C1 event at the third round in La Seu d'Urgell. Domestically, Fox won the C1 event and placed 9th in the K1 event at the Oceania Continental Championships in Penrith (counting to World Cup points), and placed 1st and 3rd at the National Championships in Eildon, Victoria, in the C1 and K1 events, respectively.^[10]

In 2011, Fox won gold medals in the C1 event at World Cups 2 and 3.^[10] At the 2011 World Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, she finished 19th, which gave Australia an automatic spot in the event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[10] She won silver medals at Australian Open and the Oceania Championships in the women's K1 event in 2011.^[10]

In 2012, Fox was selected to represent Australia for the first time at the Olympics in the women's K-1 event, where she won the silver medal at the age of 18.^[10] Her pre-Olympic schedule included training on the Olympic course in London in April,^[18][24] and World Cup competitions in Wales, France and Spain, plus the Junior World Championship in the United States.^[18] Her result has been described as competitive revenge against the 44-year-old Czech paddler Štěpánka Hilgertová, who had beaten Fox's mother Myriam to the K-1 gold medal sixteen years earlier in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Her silver medal improved on her mother's bronze from Atlanta 1996 and her father's fourth place in Barcelona 1992, and earned her the nickname "the Silver Fox" from teammates and the press.^[24]

Fox won her first World Championship titles in the C1 event and the C1 team event at the 2013 World Championships in Prague.

At the 2014 World Championships at Deep Creek Lake, in the United States, Fox became the first athlete to win the C1 and K1 events at the same World Championships, besting Jana Dukátová, who became the first to do it at separate events winning a world championship title in K1 in 2006 and C1 in 2010.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Fox won her second Olympic medal, with a bronze in the K-1 event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After winning multiple World Cup races, she won the overall World Cup title in the Kayak Single Slalom (K1) and was second overall in Canoe Single Slalom (C1). She also won the U23 World Championships in K1 and C1 in Kraków, Poland. Additionally, she also won the Oceania Championships Slalom C1 in Penrith, Australia.^[25]

In 2017, Fox won the K1 event at the 2017 World Championships. Fox won the C1 and finished second in the K1 for the 2017 World Cup, and was awarded the Canoeist of the Year award, and the NSW Athlete of the Year award.^[25][26]

In 2018, Fox was a double ICF Canoe World Champion in both the C1 and K1 at the 2018 World Championships, and again won a number of World Cups in both disciplines, finishing first in both the C1 and K1 2018 World Cup standings. Her 2018 season featured an undefeated run in C1, sweeping all five World Cups and the World Championships, including three consecutive 'Golden Doubles' at the first three World Cups.^[27] In 2019, Fox repeated her World Cup dominance, again finishing first in both the K1 and C1 World Cup standings. Fox won the Oceania Championships in Canoe Slalom again, and won silver in both K1 and C1 events at the 2019 World Championships .^[25]

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox finished third to win the bronze medal in the Women's K-1.^[28] Fox's final run included a penalty time of 4 seconds, ultimately putting her final time 1.23 seconds behind the winner Ricarda Funk. During the event, Fox also gained media attention for using a condom to repair her kayak.^[29] Fox was also the fastest qualifier for the final of the inaugural Women's Canoe Slalom C-1 event at the Olympics, where she went on to win her first Olympic gold medal, beating silver medalist Mallory Franklin of Great Britain by more than three seconds with a penalty-free run.^[30]

At the 2021 World Championships in Bratislava, Fox did not progress to the final of either the K1 or C1 for the first time in her entire career, after incurring 50-second penalties in the semi-finals of both. On the final day of competition she became World Champion in the kayak cross, an 8th individual world title in a 3rd unique event, in just her third international appearance in the event.^[31]

Fox was selected as the opening ceremony flag bearer to represent Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.^[32] In her fourth Olympic Games, Fox was able to claim her first Olympic gold medal for the K-1 event, having previously won silver and bronze medals in her last three Olympics. Fox also managed to defend her C-1 title. In doing so, Fox became the first paddler, male or female, to win and hold both K-1 and C-1 Olympic titles, and also became the most decorated athlete in canoe slalom at the Olympics. In the inaugural kayak cross event at the Olympics, Fox was eliminated in the heats in a race that featured her sister, Noemie Fox, who went on to win the gold medal.

Fox was the 2010 Penrith Press Junior Sports Star of the year and NewsLocal Medal winner.^[18]

She has also served as the ambassador for the Premier's Sporting Challenge.^[18]

In 2010, she was also named the Cumberland Courier Junior Sport Star, NSWIS Junior Athlete of the Year and the Pierre de Coubertin AOC award.^[10]

In 2009, 2010 and 2011, she was named the Junior Canoeist of the Year Australian Canoeing.^[10]

In 2011, she was named the Australian Canoeing Athlete of the Year.^[10]

She earned the AIS Secondary Education award in 2011.^[10]

She was awarded AIS Sport Performance Awards – Athlete of the Year for 2014.^[33]

From 2014 to 2019 she was named Maccabi World Union Australia's Outstanding Jewish Sportswoman.^[34][35]

In 2018, she won AIS Sport Performance Award Female Athlete of the Year.

In 2021, Fox was appointed member of the IOC Athletes' Commission.^[36] In 2024, she was elected to that committee.^[37]

In the 2022 Australia Day Honours Fox was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.^[38]

In 2017, Fox appeared as a celebrity contestant on the Australian version of Hell's Kitchen.^[39][40] She came 7th overall.

In August 2024, Fox filled in for Alex Cullen on the Nine Network's Today as a sport presenter.^[41]

¹ Oceania Canoe Slalom Open counting for World Cup points

• List of select Jewish canoeists
• List of Jewish Olympic medalists
• List of Youth Olympic Games gold medalists who won Olympic gold medals
• List of flag bearers for Australia at the Olympics

• Jessica Fox at the International Canoe Federation 
• Jessica Fox at Olympics.com 
• Jessica Fox at Olympedia 
• Jessica Fox at the Australian Olympic Committee