Paris 2024 Olympics: Fox sisters headline Australian canoe team - full list
A 15-member Australian canoe team will compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics. While 11 will be competing in sprint events the remaining four will be seen in the slalom events.
Sisters Jessica Fox and Noemie Fox will be in action in the slalom events. Their parents Myriam and father Richard are also canoe slalom Olympians.
Jessica is the most successful Australian paddler of all time with eight individual world championships golds and four Olympic medals to her name. She will represent Australia in both the women’s canoe (WC1) and kayak (WK1) slalom events in Paris.
The 30-year-old Jessica won the WC1 gold at Tokyo 2020 and will be looking to defend her crown in Paris, which will be her fourth Olympic appearance.
Noemie, 27, meanwhile, will be making her Summer Games debut in Paris. She will compete in the women’s kayak cross event, which is being introduced in the Olympic programme for the first time at Paris 2024.
Athletes contesting the K1 and C1 in Paris are also eligible for the kayak cross event, meaning Noemie and Jessica will join the ranks of Australian sisters to compete in the same event at the Olympics. Just four sets of sisters have represented Australia in the same individual event at the Olympics.
“It’s still hard to find the right words to describe how special this feels,” Noemie said. “For so long the Olympics felt very unattainable as we only have one spot per category in our sport and well - the Greatest of All Time (Jessica) has been a bit of a barrier to entry!”
“With an extra three global quotas available in the kayak cross for Paris 2024, I had a small opening to go to my first Olympic Games and chased the dream down hard no matter how slim and unattainable it felt,” she added.
Olympic debutants Tim Anderson and Tristan Carter have been selected to compete in the men’s kayak (MK1) and men’s canoe (MC1), respectively.
Interestingly, two brothers will also be racing for Australia in canoe sprint events.
Tokyo Olympian Jean van der Westhuyzen will be joined by his brother Pierre in Paris, becoming the second pair of brothers to compete in Olympic canoe sprint events for Australia, following John and Robert Doak in 1984.
Jean along with Tom Green won the gold medal in men’s K2 1000m at Tokyo and both will team up again to contest the revised distance of K2 500m in Paris. Pierre is in the men’s K4 500 team. Green will also contest the K1 1000m.
Aly Bull, Alyce Wood and Riley Fitzsimmons will contest their third Olympics with Aly and Alyce equalling Anna Wood’s (1992-2000) record for the most Olympic appearances by an Australian in women’s canoe sprint.
Ally Clarke, Yale Steinepreis, Ella Beere, Noah Havard, Pierre van der Westhuyzen and Jackson Collins will all make their Olympic debuts. Jackson’s father Daniel Collins is a four-time Olympian.
Canoe slalom events at Paris 2024 will run from July 27 to August 5 while sprint events are scheduled from August 6 to 10. The National Olympic Nautical Stadium of Île-de-France in Vaires-sur-Marne will be the venue for all events.
Australia’s Paris 2024 Olympics canoe team
Canoe sprint
- Alyce Wood - Women’s K1 500m
- Tom Green - Men’s K1 1000m
- Tom Green/Jean van der Westhuyzen - Men’s K2 500m
- Ella Beere/Ally Bull/Yale Steinepreis/Alexandra Clarke - Women’s K4 500m
- Noah Havard/Pierre van der Westhuyzen/Jackson Collins/Riley Fitzsimmons - Men’s K4 500m
Canoe slalom
- Jessica Fox - Women’s kayak (WK1)
- Jessica Fox - Women’s canoe (WC1)
- Noemie Fox, Jessica Fox - Women’s kayak cross
- Tim Anderson - Men’s kayak (MK1)
- Tristan Carter - Men’s canoe (MC1)