Team GB kayaker Joe Clarke pushes the reset button at Paris 2024 after Rio gold and missing Tokyo
One month after not being selected for Tokyo 2020, delayed to 2021, British canoe slalom athlete Joe Clarke became world champion.
The discipline was kayak cross, not an Olympic sport in Japan, but newly introduced for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Clarke repeated the feat for the next two years, claiming a 'threepeat' in the discipline - in 2021, 2022 and 2023 - that sees four kayakers plunge from a two-metre-high ramp at the same time, followed by a bunfight around slalom poles toward the finish line in a froth of whitewater.
So clear reasons then, that the 31-year-old is favourite for the kayak cross title at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Sunday 4 August, presuming he makes it through the heats the previous day and the four rounds on finals day.
But before that, should he make it through qualification on Tuesday 30 July and through the semi-finals and to the final on Thursday 1 August, Clarke could potentially repeat the individual title he won at Rio 2016.
He's also the 2023 world champion in the discipline, known as K1.
So, let's recap. Olympic champion at Rio 2016. Not selected for Tokyo 2020. Qualified for Paris in two disciplines with potential medals in both. That's quite the rollercoaster.
So what happened in the Tokyo Olympic cycle and how has Clarke pushed the reset button to put himself in contention again not only for Olympic medalware but Olympic history (no man has won a second Olympic gold medal in K1)?
Joe Clarke has double vision for gold at Paris 2024
"Achieving what I did in Rio at 23 years old, it felt almost like it came slightly too soon," said Clarke of his gold in Brazil. "Your first Games is a learning experience, the second is the one you perform at, so to go to your first and win gold, you have almost cheated the system a bit.
"My goal when I was younger was always to become Olympic champion. Then to have achieved that so early on, it was like, 'Where do I go from here?'"
Clarke continued making waves in the sport but was upended when he wasn't selected for Team GB for Tokyo 2020 after finishing behind Bradley Forbes-Cryans at the 2019 World Championships. The selection policy was adhered to even when the Tokyo Games were delayed to 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.
As is the case with those fighting for the biggest accolades, the disappointment just fanned the flames. "BUT this is definitely not the end for me," he posted. "I will come back stronger, watch this space in 2020 💪🏼💪🏼."
Previous experience coming back from disappointment came when trying to make a breakthrough as a junior, Clarke told the Team GB website. "Unfortunately, by 16, in 2008, I got an abscess behind the back of my eye and that ended up putting me out and then I got a secondary meningitis from that, so was written off before the selections that year," he said.
Twelve months later, however, he'd broken on to the junior team. Clarke doesn't stay down for long.
Clarke's personal life was also affected, like many, by the pandemic, with his wedding to fiancée Bel Stubbs delayed to 2021. But when it did happen, Clarke described it as "the best day of my life". By January 2023, another joyful occasion, when baby Hugo was born.
So this cycle sees more balance in his life, while still collecting medals along the way, setting the stage for quite the return to the Olympic arena.
"I think the disappointment of missing the Games changed me," said Clarke in a TikTok video for Planet Canoe on 18 March. "It kind of sharpened the focus a little bit. I'm here to do a job and that's to win."