Richard Fox: “Rio on track to be a high quality event”

Writer: Tom Collings - Canoe Slalom great Richard Fox was on hand to host the second World Paddle Awards Ceremony earlier this month at Sant Pere de Ribes near Barcelona. The 10-time world champion believes the second edition of the WPA was a success following its debut in Augsburg last year.

“Well looking around now I think it pretty well. I am happy to get together, it has been a bit more intimate than last year but it is a very rich environment and rich experiences to share so I think it went well but you have to say from your side too,” Fox said.

In the space of 12 months, Fox believes that the sport as a whole has progressed and evolved with fringe paddlesports including SUP growing immensely and probably outgrowing the traditional disciplines. While the popularity of extreme kayaking and ocean racing continue to grow.

“I think the people are more aware of the diversity now and branch out a little bit more and the Olympic disciplines ticking along with a very strong Rio and Tokyo focus so I think it has progressed across the board.”

Hosting the WPA awards in the Spanish region brings back a lot of memories for Fox after a gate touch saw him miss out on the medals at the 1992 Olympic Games.

“Well somebody did remind me that I didn’t win a medal but it was a long time ago and I enjoyed being a part of that occasion really as it was the end of my career. But no regrets really, it is what it is and I had a good crack at it.”

Fast-forward 24 years to today and Fox believes that the Rio Olympic Games promises to be a high quality event.

“I think the venue is up and running for the slalom now so all the teams that are competitive are over there training and the course has come out as well as people might expect so I am pretty confident that it will be a good event, well managed and run to a standard really so we can expect good things there,” Fox said.

Despite initially needing more work following the Olympic Test event last year, Fox is optimistic that the sprint will be a high quality event too.

“It is not so much the water quality but we had algae and weed on the course there and there will be some cross winds about half way through the competition program potentially but otherwise everything is okay. The Infrastructure is in place for sprint as well so I think it will be an Olympic high quality event.”