Richard Fox (canoeist)
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Men's canoe slalom
| ||
Representing Great Britain | ||
World Championships | ||
1979 Jonquière | K1 team | |
1981 Bala | K1 | |
1981 Bala | K1 team | |
1983 Meran | K1 | |
1983 Meran | K1 team | |
1985 Augsburg | K1 | |
1987 Bourg St.-Maurice | K1 team | |
1989 Savage River | K1 | |
1993 Mezzana | K1 | |
1993 Mezzana | K1 team | |
1979 Jonquière | K1 |
Richard Munro Fox
Fox also finished fourth in the K1 event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Early life and canoeing beginnings
Fox was born in Somerset, England, but moved to Harpenden,
Racing career
Despite finishing outside the top 20 in his first races, Fox impressed with his obvious speed. His problem in the early years was the number of penalty points he accrued for hitting gates. In early 1977, Pete Keane (a member of the senior British C1 team) got Fox a place at the Spring senior training camp in Matlock, Derbyshire, where Fox impressed the renowned technical coach Ken Langford and began, what was to become, a long and successful relationship. At the first race of the season on the River Tay at Grandtully in Scotland, to the disbelief of other paddlers, Fox went faster than the current British No.1 and future world champion, Albert Kerr, but again suffered from too many penalty points. Nevertheless, throughout the course of the year Fox qualified for the 4-man team to go the World Championships in Spittal (where Kerr won the first of his World Championships).
After these early successes, Fox's paddling went into decline. He was determined to spend some time on his A-Level studies and avoid being thrown out of school and his kayaking performance was plagued by crashing into too many gates, causing him to miss out on selection for the British team in 1978. The underlying belief in his ability prompted Fox and Langford to begin a new programme of mental analysis and rehearsal of gate technique that was eventually to lead to Fox becoming the master of his event for over a decade. First, he moved to Stone in Staffordshire where, in late 1977, UK Sport had established one of a number of sporting 'Centres of Excellence' in an attempt to improve international sporting performance. After initial difficulties trying to remain motivated and focused while working 10-hour days as a labourer, Fox was offered a job with the Centre undertaking a 6-month facilities survey: effectively he was given money to become a full-time canoeist. The intense training programme devised by Langford paid off and Fox achieved a bronze medal in the K1 Individual class at the World Championships in Jonquierre, as well as a team gold, before going on to win his first individual World Championships at Bala in 1981.
In 1979 Fox enrolled as a Physical Education student at Birmingham University in England and benefited from one of the early sports scholarship programmes being developed by UK universities such as Bath, Stirling and Birmingham. He received a $10,000 grant in 1980 to suspend his studies and continue his paddle training in preparation for the 1981 World Championships. Langford and Fox worked on perfecting Fox's technique of "speed through precision" which not only propelled him to success but produced a World Championship winning team with Wain and Kerr. From 1979 to 1993 Fox won either individual gold or team gold or both, in the K1 Class, at every World Championships except for 1991. At the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics, Fox finished fourth in the K1 Slalom. He was awarded an MBE for his services to British sport in the 1986 Birthday Honours.
World Cup individual podiums
Total | ||||
K1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
Season | Date | Venue | Position | Event |
---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | 20 August 1989 | Tacen | 1st | K1 |
1990 | 1 July 1990 | Wausau | 3rd | K1 |
1990 | Savage River | 3rd | K1 | |
18 August 1990 | Bourg St.-Maurice |
2nd | K1 | |
26 August 1990 | Tacen | 3rd | K1 | |
1991 | 30 June 1991 | Mezzana | 1st | K1 |
6 July 1991 | Augsburg | 1st | K1 | |
11 July 1991 | Reals | 2nd | K1 | |
25 August 1991 | Minden | 3rd | K1 | |
1992 | 23 February 1992 | Launceston | 2nd | K1 |
Equipment
Fox originally paddled Pyranha designed kayaks but when Graham Mackereth and Pyrahna pulled out of composite race boats to focus on the developing plastic, later roto moulded constructions, Fox moved to Mike Dalton and Nomad. Here he had his biggest success paddling the revolutionary Pro Am Extra before moving subsequently into the Extreme. Fox stayed with Nomad until it went bankrupt when he then transferred to Perception where he paddled a Reflex, a newly designed kayak which was launched shortly after Fox joined Perception, with whom he stayed for the remainder of his racing career.
Post-racing career
He moved to Australia in 1998 to take up a position as the National Head Coach for the
Fox was appointed National Performance Director of
He was a member of the ICF Slalom technical committee from 1996 to 2000 and played an active role in the International Canoe Federation (ICF) campaign to include Slalom in the Sydney 2000 Olympic program. Fox serves as second vice-president of the ICF.
Family
His wife,
His younger daughter Noemie Fox is also a slalom canoeist.
References
- ^ Martyn Herman (2 August 2012). "Fearless Fox rises from depths to win silver". Reuters. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- ICF Executive Committee featuring Fox
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships – Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936–2007 at WebCite (archived 9 November 2009)
External links
- Richard Fox at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)