How about this for a chain of events:
In 1998, the accomplished World Champion slalom canoeist Richard Fox was appointed by Australian Canoeing to coach the Australian canoe team ahead of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and as a result the entire Fox family relocated from Europe to Sydney, more specifically cultural masterpiece Penrith, among them Richard's wife and fellow paddler Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi (A Bronze medalist at Atlanta in 1996 who also became an accomplished coach), and their daughters Jessica and Noemie.
Richard Fox also took part in a successful campaign to keep canoeing on the Olympic program for 2000, which led to the construction of the Penrith Whitewater Stadium to host the Slalom events for the Games, with the center at Penrith still in use today as Australia's premier international canoeing facility, with the venue set to host the 2025 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships.
There you go, legacy.
As a result of Fox's leadership, West Aussie Robin Bell ascended to be ranked as the men's World No.1 in C1, won the 2005 C1 World Championship at Penrith, and won a Bronze medal in the C1 at Beijing in 2008 (He also won the C1 World Cup that year), while Jacqueline Lawrence won a Silver medal in the K1 at the same Olympics... to this day, Bell is still the only Australian man to win a Canoe Slalom Olympic medal.
Eventually, Jessica Fox, a child of the Penrith Whitewater facility and coached by Myriam, won a Youth Olympics Gold medal in the K1 at Singapore in 2010, became a multiple Junior World Champion, then earned the right to represent Australia at the Summer Olympics (aged just 18) and won a Silver medal in the K1 (After capsizing on the first qualifying run), matching Australia's greatest result in Olympic Canoe Slalom up to that point (Lawrence & Danielle Woodward in 1992), and bettering the Fox family best of the Bronze that Myriam won for France in '96.
Adding to it, Fox finished ahead of the great Czech Stepanka Hilgertova, who had bested Myriam to the Gold medal at Atlanta.
Another legacy of the Sydney Olympics - Australia making massive inroads in a discipline dominated by Europeans.
After multiple World Titles in the C1 and K1 (Including becoming the first paddler to win the C1 and K1 World Championships in the same year, 2014) and claiming the World No.1 ranking in C1, Fox won the K1 Bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and followed up by winning the C1 World Cup from 2017-19, plus the K1 World Cup in 2018-19, also going undefeated in the C1 event across 2018, with 5 World Cup wins and the World Championship title in both the C1 and K1 again in Rio...
That year, Jess also overtook her mother's record for the most Gold medals won by a woman at the Canoe Slalom World Championships (Myriam won 8, Jess now has 14).
I should also note, in this time Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi was awarded the Australian Insitute of Sport Coach of the Year in 2018 for her work with Paddling Australia and the women's national team, she also received the Coaches Lifetime Achievement from the International Olympic Committee in 2022, and Richard Fox is an inductee into the Paddle Australia Hall of Fame...
Another legacy of the Sydney Olympics, right there.
Moving on to the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, after repairing her damaged kayak with a condom (Yes, remember that?), Fox qualified fastest for the K1 Final, but a cruel late touch on a gate handed her a second penalty and dropped her from Gold to Bronze...
But 2 days later, Fox qualified fastest for the inaugural C1 final, an event that was finally included in the women's Olympic program with no small thanks to Myriam, and under immense pressure delivered a great Australian Olympic moment as she finally won an Olympic Gold medal thanks to a flawless run, with Richard watching on thousands of kilometers away in a Channel 7 commentary box, displaying a reaction so ice cool it could've frozen a fireplace.
It was only the second time Olympic history that a European nation hadn't won a Canoe Slalom Gold medal, the other instance being Americans Joe Jacobi and Scott Strausbaugh winning the old C2 event at Barcelona in 1992.
That also made Fox one of only four Australians to win a Youth Olympic Gold medal and a Summer Olympic medal - The other 3 are swimmers Emma McKeon, Maddie Wilson and Kaylee McKeown, while Fox and McKeown are the only 2 to win individual Gold medals at both events.
Then we go on to Paris 2024, as Jess was given the co-honour of carrying the Australian flag during the Opening Ceremony in the country where she was born, which didn't turn out to be that fantastic when it poured rain during the Opening Ceremony...
Then, after a botched Semi-Final run left her to start fourth in the K1 Final on the opening Sunday, Fox blew the field away with a flawless run to that the remaining competitors couldn't best, as Jess finally won the K1 Olympic Gold medal after 4 attempts and 3 medals, with the entire Fox family in attendance:
Some other historic achievements from the win included Fox becoming the first non-European to win the Olympic K1 title in either gender, she now has the most medals in the K1 (4), and is the first athlete to win an Olympic Gold medal in a canoe and a kayak.
Fox also became the first Australian Opening Ceremony flagbearer to win an individual gold medal at the same games since Bobby Pearce won the single sculls at Amsterdam in 1928, although that doesn't include the Winter Olympics, because Torah Bright did achieve the same thing at Vancouver in 2010...
Then, 3 days later, Fox would back up in the C1, qualify 2nd-fastest and proceed to blow the field away in spite of a penalty, successfully defending the C1 title and becoming the first athlete to win the C1 and K1 titles at the same Olympic Games:
In the process, Fox became the most decorated athlete in the storied history of Olympic canoe slalom, matching Frenchman Tony Estanguet with 3 Gold medals in the discipline, and became the first Australian athlete to win 6 individual Olympic medals, surpassing legendary names like Ian Thorpe, Leisel Jones, Shirley Strickland, Shane Gould, Anna Meares and Ariarne Titmus, cementing the name of Jessica Fox as an all-time Australian Olympic legend if it wasn't already.
So there you go - 24 years on since Sydney 2000, we as Australians are still enjoying the benefits of a generation of work.
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