Fresh from Rio, bronze-medal winning Olympian Jessica Fox called into her old school, Blaxland High, on Tuesday morning to rapturous applause and an avalanche of selfies.
She handed around her bronze medal earned in the K1 canoe slalom, and the silver medal she won in the 2012 London Olympics.
Fox thanked the school community for their messages of support during the Olympics and the teachers for their support five years ago while she was finishing her year 12 studies and competing overseas.
She said sport had taught her a lot.
“You learn determination, persistence and resilience, and you learn to set goals and that really helped me then apply that in school and I was really competitive,” the 22-year-old said.
She said she was happy to be back at her old school. “It was slightly overwhelming with the amount of selfies but really awesome to see so many students supporting me and supporting our Blaxland High Olympians,” Fox said.
Returning from Rio a week early, in just a few days’ time Fox heads to Prague and Slovenia for the last two canoe slalom World Cup races. She’s currently ranked third and with good results in those races, she has a chance of taking out the World Cup.
“If I’d won the gold in Rio I probably wouldn’t have done the last two World Cups, but I finished that race a little bit frustrated that I couldn’t unleash everything I’d been working on, so I just want to race again and have some closure,” Fox said.
