Jess Fox's hair-raising brush with security, TV crews at Paris mint before flag bearer announcement
PARIS: Canoe slalom champion Jess Fox is not used to tackling obstacle courses lined with hard-nosed security personnel and prying TV camera crews.
But the Australian encountered exactly those obstacles, rather than the usual gates on water, in a hair-raising few moments at the French mint on Wednesday.
Fox and her inner circle had kept secret for two months that she had been chosen as one of Australia's flag bearers for the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris, taking place on the River Seine on Saturday morning (AEST).
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In the final agonising hours before the public announcement, where Fox and hockey great Eddie Ockenden were revealed as the flag bearers at the Monnaie de Paris, Fox and her family were tasked with sneaking into the centuries-old mint without letting the secret out.
"It was quite the mission actually," Fox told reporters, smiling and laughing.
"We were in a van, and in Paris at the moment there's police everywhere and security everywhere, and we dropped the, 'She's the flag bearer. Can we go through?', and then coming into the building Channel Seven were parked out the front, so we couldn't actually go that way. So it was a bit of a maze, but we got in here and tried to keep the secret for as long as possible."
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Eddie Ockenden and Jess Fox are Australia's opening ceremony flag bearers for Paris 2024. Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Fox's dad Richard, who contested canoe slalom at the Barcelona 1992 Games, had his own superb version of the story.
"We were here early and we had to come in the back door, and we had to run away from some of the television crews and hide upstairs in the hair and make-up [area]," he explained.
"I'm glad that we're through it. There's the opening ceremony itself [to come], which will be quite a marathon and very special and a very proud moment for everyone, and the next morning she's on the water and it's back to business, and it's a long program."
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Fox and Ockenden will hold the flag aloft as a boat carrying the Australian team coasts down the River Seine during the opening ceremony.
Almost 100 boats carrying an estimated 10,500 athletes will cruise down the famous river in the city of love, in the moments leading up to the lighting of the cauldron.
Fox and Ockenden were chosen to carry the flag by Anna Meares, Australia's chef de mission for the Paris Games.
There were a couple of important reasons why Meares had given Fox such ample notice, the legendary track cyclist revealed.
"I wanted to have the opportunity to be in front of her because she's got such a ridiculous schedule," said Meares, who carried the flag at the Rio 2016 opening ceremony.
"I also know how special this is to her family.
"Then I offered her the chance to come to dinner with her family to tell them, and that was a really special moment."
Jess Fox and Eddie Ockenden at the Paris mint. Richard Pelham/Getty Images
There was a romantic feel about Fox carrying the Olympic torch last week, and there's again a romantic feel about the beloved Australian carrying the flag.
Fox was born to a Frenchwoman, her mother Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, in the French city of Marseilles, as was her younger sister Noemie.
In Paris next week, the Fox sisters will compete at an Olympic Games together for the first time, contesting the newly introduced kayak cross event.
"As you could imagine, it feels amazing," said Fox's mum, her coach and a canoe slalom bronze medallist for France at the Atlanta 1996 Games.
"I'm very grateful for Jess to be chosen by Anna to carry the flag.
"We had to make sure that she could speak French because she needed to communicate with my mum, and honestly, my mum who is 88 knew the secret and kept it on the French side."
