Chart your course

When Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi won bronze in the K1 slalom canoeing competition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a mother in her mid-thirties, she knew it marked the end of one journey and the beginning of another. The French-born athlete defied conventions of her era by balancing motherhood and Olympic training, later becoming a pioneering coach who championed gender equality in canoe slalom. Despite facing systemic resistance, Fox-Jerusalmi led the fight to introduce women's canoe singles (C1) to international competition, culminating in its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 – where her daughter Jess Fox claimed the historic first gold medal.