Twelve months ago, Fox was recovering from surgery to remove a tumour from her kidney, ruling her out of last year's home World Championships in Penrith. Her comeback season began with K1 silver in Tacen, Slovenia, before a K1-C1 double in Prague. She missed the K1 final in Augsburg, settling for C1 gold there instead, then returned to Paris's Vaires-sur-Marne, the venue of her two Paris 2024 Olympic titles, for a K1 win in early September. La Seu made it back-to-back K1 victories to close out the season.
Setting up 2027
The win carries extra weight because La Seu d'Urgell hosts the 2027 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, giving Fox a course she already knows how to win on. Racing continues in Spain with the kayak cross events, live-streamed on the Planet Worldwide YouTube channel.
Fox's season already included three gold medals at the 2026 World Championships in Oklahoma City, among them a fifth individual women's K1 world title. Add six Olympic medals, the most of any canoe slalom paddler in Games history, and 13 career World Cup series titles, and La Seu becomes another entry in an already extraordinary record.
| Jess Fox's record | Total |
|---|---|
| Olympic medals | 6 (3 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) |
| Overall World Cup series titles | 13 |
| Women's K1 World Cup series titles | 6 |
A sport of centimetres
Twenty-four hours after sealing her sixth women's K1 World Cup title, Jess Fox was back on the La Seu course chasing an eighth career C1 World Cup crown, needing only a top-six finish in the final. It didn't go to plan. A costly error at gate 15 flipped her canoe, and she lost precious seconds finding her paddle to roll upright again.
"In the final, slalom is a sport of centimetres and unfortunately I was just a bit off line and that meant I made a big mistake," Fox said. "I turned upside down, said hello to the fish, struggled to find my paddle to roll and lost a lot of time there."
Fox recovered to finish seventh, one place short of what she needed to secure the overall crown.
Two points decide the title
Slovenia's Eva Alina Hočevar claimed the women's C1 World Cup title with 234 points despite missing the final, just two points ahead of Fox on 232. The Czech Republic's Tereza Kneblova rounded out the podium on 223.
Fox took the near-miss in stride. "I'm proud to have fought to the finish line, and unfortunately not on the podium for the C1 event, but I'm on the podium for the overall, which is great," she said. "I'm really proud to finish on that note and be so close with Eva Alina, who takes the win with just two points, so it was a very tight finish."
A big week's work regardless
Two C1 golds this season, in Prague and Augsburg, brought Fox within two points of an eighth career C1 World Cup crown. Combined with the K1 title she secured the previous day, La Seu still delivered another major result in a remarkable comeback season.
