After a decade of crushing defeats and missed qualifications, Olympic rower Shaun Kirkham found himself spiraling in the final 30 seconds of the race that would define his career. What followed was gold in the men's eight at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – but for Shaun, the real victory was over the inner critic that had both driven and tormented him throughout his journey to the top.

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.