Tim Anderson’s Reset: How Setbacks Paved the Way to Paris

“You have to say to yourself in the next two minutes, I’m going to absolutely leave everything out there.” – Tim Anderson, Paris 2024 Olympian

It’s hard to picture Paris 2024 Olympian Tim Anderson at the top of a rapid, frozen with fear. Yet on his first paddle, that’s exactly where he was.

“One of the guys that was nice enough to coach me through it said, ‘Look, you can stay here and get really good at paddling backwards, or we can take our chances’,” the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder recalled.

“I never looked back from there.”

After “catching the bug” through a London [Olympic] talent program with his older brother, Anderson said he was hooked by the rush of moving water and the thrill of rapids. That passion has since carried him through an Olympic cycle and countless lessons in resilience.

Anderson shared his passion for paddling in the NSWIS-produced Whitewater Warriors, a docuseries on the Institute’s scholarship holders selected for the 2025 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships which will be contested at the Penrith Whitewater Stadium from 29 September to 4 October.

This year, the 31-year-old has won silver in the men’s kayak event at the 2025 Canoe Slalom National Championships in Penrith, and another silver at the 2025 Kayak Cross Nationals in New Zealand. He also added a bronze medal in the men’s kayak event at the 2025 Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships in Penrith.

They follow his seventh-place finish at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games – a milestone he reached only after rethinking his approach following the disappointment of missing Tokyo 2020.

“The toughest question I’ve had to ask myself would be ‘Am I going to win any races doing what I’m doing?’,” he said. “I had asked myself that in 2022. I felt that I was going through the motions a lot and not really on track to be improving enough to get where I wanted to be.”

“But then the answer being ‘No,’ I had to do something about it.”

That realisation led him to relocating to Pau, France – “a hot spot for French paddlers”, where eight months of regrouping reshaped him both as an athlete and a person.

“As you get along in your career, you definitely look back at some of the things that you felt didn’t go well,” Anderson explained.

“[My time in Pau] was definitely one of the highlights of my career, and it really validated all the effort that I had invested to improve in paddling and go for another Olympic cycle after disappointment.”

His strongest memory from Paris was stepping out from behind the warm-up bay onto the start blocks – absorbing the roaring crowd, cameras and microphones, and seeing his face on the big screen.

“It’s a really strong memory…you [had] to set all of that aside and just lock in and focus. It was incredible!” Anderson said.

Now, with the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships on the horizon, the Olympian is ready to ride the waves of Aussie flags and support that continue to inspire him.

“You love seeing Australian flags supporting you, the more you have the better,” he said. “[In Paris,] we had so many Aussies in the crowd. It was really inspiring, it was awesome to see how many people get around our athletes. It does give you a boost.”

View full episodes of Whitewater Warriors on Youtube.