Paddler Lucien Delfour named on Australian Olympic Team

Lucien Delfour will take on the Canoe Slalom whitewater in Tokyo, after being selected to the Australian Olympic Team on Friday.

Delfour secured his ticket to Tokyo by winning the Paddle Australia selection trials in February in K1 event, coming out on top in the event across the 2020 Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships in Auckland and 2020 Australian Open Canoe Slalom in Penrith.

The selection completes the Australian Canoe Slalom team for Tokyo, with Delfour joining Olympic debutant Daniel Watkins and multiple World Champion and dual Olympic medallist Jessica Fox, who was selected to contest both the C1 and K1 in November 2019.

Australian Chef de Mission for Tokyo 2020 Ian Chesterman congratulated the two canoeists.

“It’s fantastic to announce Lucien and Daniel today and complete the Canoe Slalom selections for Tokyo,” Mr Chesterman said.

“Becoming a dual Olympian is a remarkable achievement and I’m delighted to see Lucien selected to his second Games. He has been showing outstanding form this season and is reaching the top echelon of the sport.

French-born Delfour, who has been competing for Australia since 2010, was honoured to make his second Olympic Team for his adopted country.

“The Olympics means so much, it’s what I train for every day, I dream about it, it’s always on my mind,” Delfour said.

“It’s a really special honour to make the Games for a second time and I’m so excited to go to Tokyo.”

The slalom program consists of four events – C1 and K1 for both men and women, a change from the Rio program of women’s K1 and men’s K1, C1 and C2, with the women’s C1 Olympic debut making Tokyo 2020 the first Games with an equal number of women’s and men’s canoe events and athletes.

Canoe Slalom will take place from 26 to 31 July at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre, the first humanmade course in Japan.