Jessica Fox’s inspiring comeback from surgery has continued with a second World Cup gold medal in the space of two days.
Fox won the women’s C1 event at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup in Prague, just 24 hours after topping the podium in the K1 final.
The three-time Olympic gold medallist only returned to international competition last week following a nine-month absence.
Fox underwent surgery to remove a benign tumour from her left kidney last year.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time now and I need to trust myself and trust my skills,” Fox said.
“Throughout the whole surgery and recovery process, I kept telling myself the mind remembers, the body remembers, I can come back from this and I’ll be back.”
Fox claimed a silver medal in the women’s K1 final at the World Cup event in Tacen, Slovenia in her international return last week.
“Coming off the back of Slovenia last week, I was battling with a wrist injury, so I’ve been managing that,” Fox said.
“I think I’m feeling much better this week and more confident in my paddling.”
Fox was competing for the first time in C1 since having surgery.
She attracted four penalty seconds in her run when she touched gates 17 and 18, before finishing with a total of 121.01.
Czech Martina Satková (121.28) and Great Britain’s Kimberley Woods (123.02) claimed silver and bronze respectively.
“This one feels extremely special,” Fox said.
“I definitely didn’t expect to win that run. It felt really hard down the bottom section and I think for me it was a lesson in never giving up and holding it together, staying composed right until the finish.
“I’m really proud of the fight and the determination I showed out there today.”
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