Jessica Fox of Team Australia competes during the Women's Canoe Single Heats. GETTY IMAGES

Two golds in a week is a luxury not available to everyone unless you are Australia's Jessica Fox, who is already a legend in her own right in the canoeing domain.

Fox emerged the winner of the Women's Canoe Single (C1) event Wednesday clinching her second gold medal in just a few days having also won the Women's Kayak Single (K-1) event on Sunday. 

She even had a two-second penalty for touching a gate, which did not prevent her from finishing a descent in 101.06 seconds.

It means that Fox has made history by being the first to do an Olympic double in kayaking and canoeing and she could still even win a third medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the Women's Kayak Cross event set to take place this coming weekend.




Germany's Elena Lilik came in second place with 103.54 seconds almost six seconds ahead of the USA's Evy Leibfarth, bronze (109.95).

Fox had been in the gold medal hunt for several Olympics: she won her first medal at London 2012 with a bronze in K1 and four years later improved her result with a silver in the same category.

The 30-year-old Australian, who was Australia's flag bearer at Friday's opening ceremony, defended her C1 gold won in Tokyo three years ago to claim the sixth Olympic medal of her career.

In Tokyo, she reinforced her legacy with the first women's gold in C1, a category until then reserved for men, as well as a bronze in K1 despite health complications caused by both COVID-19 and an injury. 

It was not to be for Germany's Elena Lilik, 25, whose best result to date was the World Cup in C1 won in 2021, nor for Andorra's Monica Doria (6th, 113.58 s) or the Czech Gabriela Satkova, fastest paddler during Tuesday's qualifying heats and Wednesday's semi-final, which placed her as Fox's main rival for the gold. But she also had mistakes and second penalties that kept her off the podium.

Among the other competitors, Brazil's Ana Satila was 5th and Spain's Miren Lazkano finished 10th.

A native of Marseille, the Australian, who also has 24 World Cup medals to her name, had been second in the first heat and in the semi-final. In the final, she did an exercise in survival and strength to win gold with a time of 101.06 and precede Germany's Elena Lilik (103.54) and the USA's Evy Leibfarth (109.95) on the podium.