Jessica Fox, an Australian canoeist, won both the bronze (K-1) and the gold medal (C-1) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics earlier this week. She finished third in the K-1 event as a time penalty may have cost her the gold. But what made her win memorable and unique is that she used a condom to fix her broken kayak. However, a two-pole strike in the kayak got her a four-second penalty. In turn, Germany’s Ricarda Funk won the title.
Jessica got a bronze to add to the one she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and her silver in London four years earlier.
“Bet you never knew condoms could be used for kayak repairs,” the 27-year-old wrote in her own TikTok video, which is now viral.
The video shows Jessica, first, using a ‘carbon mixture’ to patch a hole in the kayak and then to hold the epoxy-like substance in place, she places a condom over it. The video described the condom as “stretchy Much strong [sic].”
In the C-1 event, after pulling away from the start line at the artificial white water course, Jessica shot through the downstream gates, swung around upstream gate poles before digger her paddle into the water to cross the finish line.
“To come back after that was extremely hard emotionally. I think I relived my kayak race a million times in my head. Probably never been as nervous as I was today,” she said.
“My vision was a bit blurry and I was just trying to see where I was and if it was enough. You never know what’s going to happen in the Olympics and it’s about holding your nerve,” Australia’s slalom queen said with a gold medal hanging around her neck.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she became the first-ever women’s canoe slalom champion. She is also a four-time world champion. Jessica also became the only paddler to have won Olympic medals in both the canoe and kayak slaloms.
She is coached by her mother Myriam, who was a two-time world champion and bronze medallist in 1996. Her father Richard, also pitches in, who has five world titles under his belt.
