PARIS — Australia’s Jessica Fox pulled off another sensational descent at the Vaires-sur-Marnes Nautical Stadium to win her second gold of the Paris Games on Wednesday, adding the women’s canoe single title to the kayak single gold she secured on Sunday.
Still, Fox stole the show with an incredible winning run to capture gold in the event for the second straight Olympics.
Germany’s Elena Lilik took the silver and 20-year-old American Evy Leibfarth bagged an unexpected bronze.
“It’s so crazy, I didn’t really think it would happen for me, I guess — it’s always been such a big goal, but it seems crazy to be an Olympic medalist,” Leibfarth said afterward. “I’m just so happy.”
Leibfarth went out first in the final, setting the pace with a run of 1 minute, 9.95 seconds that looked as if it wouldn’t top the standings for long, but the next four racers came and went and none of them could knock her off her perch.
She was finally bumped down to second when Lilik put in a flawless high-octane run that saw her slide into first place with a lead of more than six seconds, the 25-year-old shrieking with joy when she saw her final time.
With the tricky course forcing costly errors from some of the world’s top paddlers, Lilik’s time looked better and better as the final went on, but the unparalleled Fox was yet to have her say.
When she did, she roared.
Second-last to go, Fox flew down the course, attacking every downstream gate with gusto and teeing herself up for the upstream gates with tremendous precision.
She eventually crossed the line in a time of 1:01.06, with only a two-second penalty for brushing the 19th gate preventing her from a lower time.
Last out was Gabriela Satkova of the Czech Republic, and despite impressing in the heats and the semis, she came unstuck early, allowing Fox to start celebrating another Olympic gold before her final rival had even crossed the finish line.
“I don’t know how I did that, the atmosphere was incredible. I looked out and I saw so much green and yellow — so many Aussie flags, and I think that was the best run I’ve ever done,” Fox said. “I knew once I had got through the hard moves, it was about trying to get to the finish and holding it together, and wow!”
Meanwhile, Leibfarth became the first American woman since Rebecca Giddens in 2004 — a silver in kayak slalom — to earn an Olympic medal in a solo canoe or kayak event.
Leibfarth was thrilled with joining Fox and Lilik as medalists.
“Both of these girls I’ve looked up to for so long,” said Leibfarth, who lives in Bryson City, N.C., and attends Davidson College. “I think they’re amazing paddlers, they’re beautiful to watch on the water and I feel very proud to be up here with them.”
–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media
