Fox etched into history with sixth Olympic medal
Champion paddler Jessica Fox has defended her C1 crown and made Australian Olympic history by adding a second gold medal to her Paris collection.
Coming on the back of her breakthrough K1 triumph, Fox stormed to another commanding win at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium whitewater course on Wednesday.
The gold is the country’s seventh of the Games.
Fox becomes the first Australian athlete to win six individual Olympic medals, overtaking swimmers Shane Gould, Ian Thorpe and Leisel Jones, sprinter Shirley Strickland and current chef de mission, cyclist Anna Meares, who each have five.
The 30-year-old Sydneysider is chasing more history, seeking a golden treble in Paris as she attempts to join Gould, in 1972, as the only Australians to have won three individual gold medals at the one Olympics.
With the addition of canoe cross to the 2024 program, the France-born Fox will start hot favourite to achieve the rare feat with that medal awarded on Monday.
Already the most successful female canoe slalom athlete of all-time, Fox now owns three gold, a silver and two bronze from four Games after making her debut in London 2012.
Like her emphatic victory in Tokyo, when C1 was added to the program, Fox swept the field.
Germany’s former world champion Elena Lilik set the pace, stopping the clock on her clean run at 103.54 seconds.
Second last on the course, Fox produced a clean run and a stunning time of 99.06.
American Evy Leibfarth took bronze.
#Fox #etched #history #sixth #Olympic #medal