Jessica Fox says she looked to Australia’s former Olympic cycling champion Anna Meares to help vanquish self doubt before her triumphant gold medal canoe run.
Long touted as the world’s best paddler, Fox made it official in winning the first Olympic gold on offer in the new women’s C1 event after earlier winning bronze in the K1 in Tokyo.
While any medal is worth celebrating, Fox was left shattered when a time penalty two gates before the finish cost her a certain K1 gold, which she was chasing after bronze in Rio and a surprise silver as a teenager in London.
Now 27, Fox met Meares as a 10-year-old and has looked to the retired six-time Olympic medallist for inspiration and advice throughout her career.
The pair have crossed paths over the years and stayed in touch on social media, and Fox said she drew on Meares’ experience from the London Olympics to help steady her mind between races.
In 2012 reigning world champion Meares screwed up the final of the Keirin, finishing fifth, with arch-rival Brit Victoria Pendleton taking gold.
But Meares regrouped to beat Pendleton in the Sprint final, winning her second Olympic gold.
“I love learning from other people’s experiences – I love leaning on other Olympic champions and hearing about how they’ve dealt with things,” Fox said.
“I actually thought about Anna Meares and her London experience where it didn’t go to plan on the first day and her coach Gary West sat her down and said, ‘Well what do you want to do Mearsey?’ and she came back and won that gold medal and I did think about that.”
Describing herself as a “big reader” she also used a journal to process her emotions.
“Some days before a competition, there’s three lines in my journal and before the C1 there was about five pages of self talk,” she said.
“You know we’ve all got to do the work that we need to do to get us into the right mindset and I think I managed to pull it around.”
She said that her Tokyo experience – her third Olympics – had been very different but it was something she was prepared for.
“I had a very different mindset to previous Games in that I knew it would be different and I think all the athletes were ready for that,” she said.
“The mindset was just gratitude and happiness to be here for the competition.
“Personally, it was a very different Olympics for me because it was also an opportunity for me to race in two events which was quite historic in my sport, with a new event being added.
“I definitely felt the load and the pressure and the expectation but I think I was also prepared for that.
“I think we’re all just stoked it could happen so we’re all very thankful to the organisers and the Japanese people and the Aussie team for getting us here.”
AAP
