Mallory Edwards: How canoeing gave the 'shy' child the confidence to succeed
The Tokyo 2020 silver medallist in canoe slalom recognises that should she qualify for Paris 2024, a full throttle Games-time with fans and media could prove an additional personal challenge.
"I'm not really a fight and crash person," GB's canoe slalom athlete Mallory Edwards (nee Franklin) told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview in June.
The Tokyo 2020 silver medallist was referring to the relatively new discipline of extreme canoe slalom, in which four athletes plunge from a platform more than two metres above the frothing water followed by a bun fight to the line.
The sport, also known as kayak or canoe cross, will make its debut at Paris 2024 and will feature at the World Championships taking place from 19-24 September in London.
The comment is unsurprising coming from the 29-year-old who describes herself as, "more on the shy side of people".
"(Extreme kayaking) is a lot more like ski cross or BMX cross, where you've got people fighting and there's a lot of jostling for places and, generally speaking, when they go through the finish, you know who's won. So it can be really exciting in that way.
"Personally, I'm a little bit more on the finesse side of slalom."
Mallory Edwards (nee Franklin) Tokyo 2020 canoe slalom silver medallist
Mallory Edwards' rapid rise
Edwards won Olympic silver in the more 'sedate' C1 category at her debut Games – C indicating canoe, and 1, single person – in the time-trial type race.
Nevertheless, the discipline still involves plunging through the raging waters of an up to 400-metre-long course through which athletes navigate a maximum of 25 gates. Knock one of those on the way down and penalties are added to your time. The quickest athlete wins.
Nonetheless, the Windsor-born paddler still managed second place in the more ferocious discipline at last year's World Championships in Slovakia to add to her more regular C1 and K1 gongs ('k' indicating the kayak discipline), something her younger, more timid self, would likely never have envisaged.
All three disciplines are part of the 2023 edition, taking place on home water at Lee Valley White Water Centre, the London 2012 venue where the teenager three years into her international career clapped eyes on those at the pinnacle of the sport that would become the vessel already shaping a shy girl into becoming an Olympic medallist.
Treading water as Tokyo 2020 delayed
With the Olympics the only multi-sport competition in which British canoe slalom athletes competed – until its addition to the European Games in 2023 from which Edwards returned with a silver and bronze medal – the prospect of competing for Team GB at Tokyo 2020 was already other worldly.
The GB canoe slalom team, which included Edwards, had been selected for the Japan Games in October 2019. Already a lengthy lead-in time, the additional year-long-delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic offered Edwards plenty of time to consider what competing at an Olympic Games might be like.
"It was really nice knowing that you have (the Games) coming and being able to really work on what you wanted to in that time," said Edwards of the initial selection period. "And then, given the extra period of time, it was kind of that reflective piece of being able to take in everything and actually be able to really embrace the whole experience of being Olympians and everything that went with it."
By the time the Games came around, in 2021, Edwards felt a sense of achievement just by turning up.
"I'd not been to a Games at all before, so for me it was like, I don't know what to compare it to. Even being there was a really weird experience... but it was a really cool environment, and it had its own quirks that make it really individual as the Games as well and I think that that's kind of a nice experience to have been a part of."
And not altogether unwelcome for someone who prefers the quiet life.
Describing Tokyo as a nice "stepping-stone" for her in terms of environment "because you've got all the media and everything that goes with the Games, but without the physical presence of people", Edwards had a gentle introduction to the multi-sport extravaganza.
Usually a lightning rod for attention, at this unique Games, in-person media requests were restricted and there was muted fanfare arriving home to London's Heathrow Airport. Usually a cacophony of noisy celebration from family, fans, and media alike, only Edwards' husband of one year came to pick her up: "Everyone knew that's what I preferred."
That's not to say, however, should she qualify for Paris 2024, Edwards won't welcome the return of the fans and the full Olympic experience.
The 2023 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships is the global world qualification competition for the canoe slalom events of the upcoming Games, with the best athletes placed in each event of the tournament obtaining the quota places for their respective National Olympic Committees.
There are 15 quotas available in each of the men's and women's K1 competitions, and 12 in each of the men’s and women’s C1 events. The three quotas in each of the men’s and women’s kayak cross will be decided during a special qualifying event in early 2024.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Calm waters when Edwards returned to the UK
Winning a silver in Japan felt really normal but also really weird, said Edwards of the moment she secured second place to Australia's legendary paddler Jess Fox, a then 10-time world champion who finally claimed her longed-for Olympic gold.
"You go through the medal ceremony, which is when you really get to know that you've got the medal, and then there's like this whole like kind of down period of it," she recalled. But with canoe slalom one of the last events to finish and athletes from each sport having to fly home immediately on their competition finishing, there was a lack of Team GB team-mates with whom to celebrate.
"It was kind of weird not being able to really experience it with my teammates and my group that I've been with at that point... It was only me and my coach really experiencing it and getting to go to Team GB House (the British Olympic Association's primary hospitality and media site during the Games) and experience all those kinds of things – that was crazy and cool to experience."
Back at the Lee Valley training centre, "all the other athletes put on this whole thing, which was really cute and really nice to have that appreciation and that acknowledgment of it".
But quickly enough it was back to business.
"I didn't do a huge amount of media stuff in person, and because the Games had been delayed, it was put into like our normal year schedule, so I actually had senior selection for my other category a week after the Games.
"So it was weird just going straight back into normal life and I wasn't really able to ride the Olympic medal."
Olympic bubble set to burst
Aware there will be more media, fans, and friends and family in Paris, "outside the Olympic bubble" of Tokyo, Edwards is nevertheless excited about a full-on Olympic Games, despite the personal challenges that entails.
"I think, for me, being able to be back in that environment and get to experience the Games in a whole environment and challenge myself to try and perform in front of the amount of crowd that would be in that kind of an uncomfortable situation for me is probably a bit more where my motivation comes from," says the paddler who started the sport at five years old.
"My motivation comes not necessarily doing the best or getting the titles – these are obviously things that I strive for and the minute I sit on the start line, 100% I want to win – but I think that I've grown so much over the time that I've been in sport... it's like I've almost gained the motivation from wanting to be able to become the best person I can, and doing well at races is a big part of how I get that."
With a lengthy career in the sport, thoughts unsurprisingly turn toward what legacy she may leave, aside from becoming GB's most successful ever female canoeist.
"I just want to be remembered as someone who wanted to give back to the sport and encourage kids to get the experience that I got," said Edwards, who spends time coaching local youngsters on the water, "because I think that it's been a massive part of developing who I am and me becoming someone that's a lot more well-rounded and going into the world confident in who I am."