Magical Mallory keeps flag flying
➤ Briton wins silver as women’s event makes its Olympic debut ➤ Australia’s Fox snatches away victory with a superb final run
In a performance oozing calm and confidence, Mallory Franklin claimed the silver medal in the C1 canoe slalom on the first occasion women have been able to compete in this discipline at the Olympic Games. It was a result that the 27-year-old from Windsor celebrated by jumping on to the podium, spreading her arms wide and drawing a smile across her face mask with her finger. And no wonder. In the broiling water of the slalom course, hers was a superb display of paddle control, beaten only by a searing turn by the Australian world No1 Jessica Fox.
“I mean, it’s Jess,” said Franklin, No2 in the world rankings, as she faced the press, the silver medal hanging round her neck. “I’ve come second to her a lot of times. I’m pretty used to it.”
Yet, for much of this competition, it looked as if Franklin might win gold. She had qualified for the showdown with the sixth-fastest semifinal time. It meant she would go out on to the water fifth of the 10 finalists. And she did so with an impressively relaxed demeanour. As she waited on the start line, a camera span round her, catching her eye as she waited, kneeling in her canoe. She smiled and nodded. As it moved, the camera took in the semi-industrial backdrop to the Tokyo canoe centre, which stands underneath a stack of motorway flyovers, a railway viaduct and – oddly – an enormous big wheel.
Some 200 metres of bubbling cascade has been built into concrete here, next to a container shipping depot. The paddlers hurtle down the course, steering through pairs of poles that hang above the water. Sometimes a gate is behind the canoeist as they come down the rapids, meaning they have to paddle ferociously against the current to double back on themselves.
It is like a sort of global warming ski slalom, with the piste melted into a raging torrent.
It takes courage and real skill not to roll at the first turn. Plus physical dexterity; the paddlers sway and weave in their canoes, their core under constant pressure.
Her relaxed demeanour on the start line was unusual, Franklin admitted. She had worked hard in the weeks leading up to the event on trying to control her emotions.
“In 2019, I’d been in tears before every race,” she explained of her mental approach. “I had a little meltdown, but bounced back. I was able to go canoeing and enjoy all my sessions. I’m proud of myself. I could have been on the start line stressed out of my head. But I managed to persuade myself to make the most of the moment.”
She did that all right. Despite brushing the 15th gate with the top of her helmet – and thus incurring a two-second penalty – she set a searing time. After climbing out of her canoe, she was directed to a gazebo underneath which the fastest three finishers were gathered. Here they watched as the others took off down the course one by one, swapping places if their time was beaten.
Franklin was atop the faux podium from the moment she finished. After the Brazilian Ana Satila messed up horribly, she knew she was guaranteed at least a bronze medal. When Czech Republic’s Tereza Fiserova fizzed over her time by several seconds, it was clear she had secured the silver.
It meant gold was down to a battle with Fox, who was due to head out last. This was an Ashes contest on the water.
Fox set off as if with an outboard motor. Powering at speed, by the end of the second section of the course she had recorded a time four seconds up on Franklin. When she hurtled across the finish line, slapping the water with her paddle in delight, it was evident she was the best. Required to stand and watch, her chin on her paddle, as Fox bettered her time at every split, Franklin generously broke into applause when she saw her time. It was, as she recognised, the most legitimate result: Fox was the best paddler out there. Indeed, this was as good an advertisement for opening up the C1 category to women as could have been delivered.
“It feels like a rite of passage,” Franklin said. “The whole class has been building. It feels right. And to produce that kind of final makes you feel we deserve to be here.”
Now, with an Olympic medal to her name, a new world opens up for the self-effacing Franklin. Asked how she might cope with an invitation to compete on A Question of Sport, she looked aghast. “Well, if they want an awkward person who can’t answer any questions and hides in her shell, I’m that person,” she said. “By the way, I’m not joking.”
She may describe herself as awkward off the water, but as she proved here, Mallory Franklin is more than fluent on it.