Jessica Fox

Early life 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. Fox is Jewish, as is her mother, whereas her father is not. 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. 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. 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.

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, 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.

Career

Fox races in K1, C1 and Kayak Cross events and is coached by her mother, Myriam. At the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore, she won the gold in the girls' K1 slalom event. and World Cup competitions in Wales, France and Spain, plus the Junior World Championship in the United States.

2017–2020: Record breaking dominance 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.

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. 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 . 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. Fox was also the fastest qualifier for the final of the inaugural women's C1 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.

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.

2024: Paris Olympics Fox was selected as the opening ceremony flag bearer to represent Australia at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. In her fourth Olympic Games, Fox was able to claim her first Olympic gold medal in the K1 event, having previously won one silver and two bronze medals in this event. Fox also managed to defend her C1 title. In doing so, Fox became the first paddler, male or female, to win and hold both K1 and C1 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, finishing 26th overall, in a race that featured her sister, Noemie Fox, who went on to win the gold medal.

Awards and honours Fox was the 2010 Penrith Press Junior Sports Star of the year and NewsLocal Medal winner.

From 2014 to 2019 she was named Maccabi World Union Australia's Outstanding Jewish Sportswoman.

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

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

In the 2022 Australia Day Honours Fox was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.

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

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

Career statistics

Major championships results timeline

World Cup individual podiums Total C1 37 9 3 49 K1 18 12 3 33 Kayak cross 2 0 3 5 Kayak cross individual 1 0 1 2 Total 58 21 10 89

SeasonDateVenuePositionEvent 2010 21 February 2010 Penrith 1st C11 27 June 2010 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 2011 2 July 2011 L'Argentière-la-Bessée 1st C1 9 July 2011 Markkleeberg 1st C1 2012 9 June 2012 Cardiff 2nd C1 2013 22 June 2013 Cardiff 2nd C1 29 June 2013 Augsburg 1st C1 6 July 2013 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 17 August 2013 Tacen 1st C1 18 August 2013 Tacen 1st K1 24 August 2013 Bratislava 1st C1 2014 8 June 2014 Lee Valley 3rd K1 14 June 2014 Tacen 1st C1 2 August 2014 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 2015 20 June 2015 Prague 2nd C1 21 June 2015 Prague 2nd K1 27 June 2015 Kraków 1st C1 8 August 2015 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 15 August 2015 Pau 2nd C1 16 August 2015 Pau 2nd K1 2016 4 June 2016 Ivrea 1st C1 5 June 2016 Ivrea 2nd K1 12 June 2016 La Seu d'Urgell 2nd K1 18 June 2016 Pau 2nd C1 3 September 2016 Prague 1st C1 10 September 2016 Tacen 2nd C1 11 September 2016 Tacen 1st K1 2017 24 June 2017 Augsburg 1st C1 1 July 2017 Markkleeberg 1st C1 2 July 2017 Markkleeberg 2nd K1 2 September 2017 Ivrea 1st C1 3 September 2017 Ivrea 2nd K1 9 September 2017 La Seu d'Urgell 2nd C1 10 September 2017 La Seu d'Urgell 2nd K1 2018 23 June 2018 Liptovský Mikuláš 1st K1 24 June 2018 Liptovský Mikuláš 1st C1 30 June 2018 Kraków 1st K1 1 July 2018 Kraków 1st C1 7 July 2018 Augsburg 1st K1 8 July 2018 Augsburg 1st C1 31 August 2018 Tacen 1st C1 1 September 2018 Tacen 2nd K1 9 September 2018 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 2019 15 June 2019 Lee Valley 3rd K1 16 June 2019 Lee Valley 3rd C1 30 June 2019 Tacen 1st C1 31 August 2019 Markkleeberg 2nd K1 1 September 2019 Markkleeberg 3rd C1 7 September 2019 Prague 1st K1 8 September 2019 Prague 1st C1 2021 12 June 2021 Prague 3rd K1 13 June 2021 Prague 1st C1 19 June 2021 Markkleeberg 1st K1 4 September 2021 La Seu d'Urgell 1st K1 5 September 2021 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 11 September 2021 Pau 1st K1 12 September 2021 Pau 2nd C1 12 September 2021 Pau 3rd Kayak cross 2022 11 June 2022 Prague 1st K1 18 June 2022 Kraków 1st K1 25 June 2022 Tacen 1st K1 27 August 2022 Pau 1st K1 28 August 2022 Pau 3rd C1 28 August 2022 Pau 1st Kayak cross 2023 3 June 2023 Augsburg 1st C1 9 June 2023 Prague 1st K1 10 June 2023 Prague 1st C1 17 June 2023 Tacen 1st K1 18 June 2023 Tacen 3rd Kayak cross 1 September 2023 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 2 September 2023 La Seu d'Urgell 2nd K1 6 October 2023 Vaires-sur-Marne 1st K1 7 October 2023 Vaires-sur-Marne 1st C1 8 October 2023 Vaires-sur-Marne 3rd Kayak cross 2024 1 June 2024 Augsburg 1st C1 7 June 2024 Prague 2nd K1 8 June 2024 Prague 2nd C1 14 June 2024 Kraków 1st K1 15 June 2024 Kraków 1st C1 16 June 2024 Kraków 1st Kayak cross 21 September 2024 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 2025 7 June 2025 La Seu d'Urgell 1st C1 14 June 2025 Pau 1st C1 15 June 2025 Pau 3rd Kayak cross individual 29 June 2025 Prague 1st Kayak cross individual 2026 29 May 2026 Tacen 2nd K1 5 June 2026 Prague 1st K1 6 June 2026 Prague 1st C1 13 June 2026 Augsburg 1st C1

1 Oceania Canoe Slalom Open counting for World Cup points

Complete World Cup results