PARIS — Australia’s Jessica Fox pulled off one other sensational descent on the Vaires-sur-Marnes Nautical Stadium to win her second gold of the Paris Video games on Wednesday, including the ladies’s canoe single title to the kayak single gold she secured on Sunday.
Nonetheless, Fox stole the present with an unbelievable successful run to seize gold within the occasion for the second straight Olympics.
Germany’s Elena Lilik took the silver and 20-year-old American Evy Leibfarth bagged an surprising bronze.
“It is so loopy, I did not actually assume it will occur for me, I suppose — it is at all times been such an enormous objective, however it appears loopy to be an Olympic medalist,” Leibfarth stated afterward. “I am simply so comfortable.”
A medal for the books!
Evy Leibfarth’s bronze is the primary U.S. girls’s slalom medal — in canoe or kayak — in 20 years…
which suggests it is also the primary since she was born. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/Cc993aCxiN
— Staff USA (@TeamUSA) July 31, 2024
Leibfarth went out first within the remaining, setting the tempo with a run of 1 minute, 9.95 seconds that appeared as if it would not high the standings for lengthy, however the subsequent 4 racers got here and went and none of them may knock her off her perch.
She was lastly bumped right down to second when Lilik put in a flawless high-octane run that noticed her slide into first place with a lead of greater than six seconds, the 25-year-old shrieking with pleasure when she noticed her remaining time.
With the tough course forcing pricey errors from a number of the world’s high paddlers, Lilik’s time appeared higher and higher as the ultimate went on, however the unparalleled Fox was but to have her say.
When she did, she roared.
Second-last to go, Fox flew down the course, attacking each downstream gate with gusto and teeing herself up for the upstream gates with super precision.
She ultimately crossed the road in a time of 1:01.06, with solely a two-second penalty for brushing the nineteenth gate stopping her from a decrease time.
Final out was Gabriela Satkova of the Czech Republic, and regardless of impressing within the heats and the semis, she got here unstuck early, permitting Fox to start out celebrating one other Olympic gold earlier than her remaining rival had even crossed the end line.
“I do not know the way I did that, the ambiance was unbelievable. I appeared out and I noticed a lot inexperienced and yellow — so many Aussie flags, and I feel that was one of the best run I’ve ever finished,” Fox stated. “I knew as soon as I had bought by the laborious strikes, it was about making an attempt to get to the end and holding it collectively, and wow!”
In the meantime, Leibfarth turned the primary American girl since Rebecca Giddens in 2004 — a silver in kayak slalom — to earn an Olympic medal in a solo canoe or kayak occasion.
Leibfarth was thrilled with becoming a member of Fox and Lilik as medalists.
“Each of those ladies I’ve appeared as much as for thus lengthy,” stated Leibfarth, who lives in Bryson Metropolis, N.C., and attends Davidson Faculty. “I feel they’re superb paddlers, they’re lovely to look at on the water and I really feel very proud to be up right here with them.”
–Reuters, Particular to Discipline Degree Media
