Luuka Jones is preparing for a fifth Olympics. Photosport
Luuka Jones is preparing for a fifth Olympics. Photosport
Kiwi kayak icon Luuka Jones – who won silver at the 2016 Olympic Games – is planning to go out with a bang, literally.
The 35-year-old has just won her first big international gold medal by triumphing in the extreme discipline known as kayak cross, which makes its Olympic debutnext year.
The slalom canoeist’s World Cup victory on the Olympic course in Paris last month brought a lot of satisfaction and optimism to the Jones’ camp, after her battle with Covid and injuries.
She beat overall World Cup winner Kimberley Woods of Great Britain and Australian Olympic canoe champion Jessica Fox with what has been described as “perfect” technique.
Kayak has become a contact sport and veteran Jones is loving it.
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In stark contrast to classic slalom’s solitary race against the clock, kayak cross is like a demolition derby where heavier plastic boats smack into each other.
The four competitors in each race start by plunging off a two-metre-high ramp, then engage in combat with a mandatory full “Eskimo roll” thrown in.
It’s a mad minute in which Kiwis are primed to excel given our whitewater traditions.
Jones chats about a career built on incredible determination, the worst job she ever had, the tragedy that changed her life, how kayak cross is testing her sport’s camaraderie, impending marriage, a special drink she got from an Olympic hero, and more.
What did the World Cup gold medal mean to you?
To actually win something and to feel so dominant on the Olympic course, less than a year out from the Games, was really special.
I had to come back from Covid and lots of little injuries and illnesses – I have missed more than 11 weeks of proper training this year. I got quite upset at times from setback after setback.
I’ve had to train smarter and the win proved that what we are doing is working.
Are you officially going to the Paris Olympics?
I’ve kind of wrapped up the selection on points - but nothing has been announced. You qualify in slalom and through that you can also race extreme (kayak cross).
Luuka Jones attempts to chase down Martina Satkova during the kayak cross semifinals at the world championships. Photo / AP
To go way back to the beginning…you were a dogged self-starter, scraping together enough money to chase your dream in Britain as a teenager.
I had a work visa for the UK so moved there to try and get better, training alongside the British slalom team (prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics).
I worked at three different jobs to save the money to go to Nottingham. In the morning I worked for a medical firm, throwing out files of people who had been deceased for more than 10 years. Then I’d go and work in a smoothie bar. Then I’d go and do call surveys at a radio station.
I was that person interrupting your dinner. It was a horrible job, awful. People would say ‘Why are you calling me at this time?’ I nearly got fired one time after calling a friend for a chat. It was too much calling angry people all the time.
When I did eventually get funded, it wasn’t enough to live on. It might have been like $25,000 a year. Now it’s like $55,000 before tax, and I can also seek sponsorship. We get funding to travel as well.
Where did that fierce determination come from?
I love the sport and was so determined to get better. I think back to the days when I was travelling with good friends, particularly my friend Louise Jull who passed away in a kayaking accident eight years ago.
We would travel overseas and all these crazy things would happen. It was an adventure and you just kept going, learning life skills.
I’d get so stressed just going to the airport, trying to get our boats on without paying oversized charges because we had no money.
We’d sleep on couches. In 2009, we bought a car that broke down in the middle of nowhere in France. Louise and I ended up hitchhiking over the Pyrenees five times.
Would you like to talk about Louise?
There have been quite a few people within the kayaking community who have lost their lives, but she was my closest friend.
She was a really well-known whitewater kayaker, slalom initially then moving into more extreme kayaking.
It was horrible. It makes you re-look at why you do things and inspired me to do more with my life.
We first met at about 13 and we just clicked, and basically were on every junior development tour together.
It was such a huge loss... she had so much ahead of her. It’s cruel.
I don’t go down rivers so much since her passing because of the risk.
I like talking about her because it helps me to remember. In Rio, I raced for her – it makes you cherish those special friendships.
There seems to be a strong camaraderie in your sport around the world…
In classic slalom, you are racing against the clock and we also spend a lot of time at slalom venues. We are all friends – there was a training camp in Tekapo last year with six females from different countries. I really cherish that about the sport but it makes extreme [kayak cross] more difficult because you are crashing into your friends.
I was wondering about that… kayak cross is actually a contact sport.
It has changed the dynamics. You get to the bottom and look around because you’ve potentially hurt someone or they have hurt you, or you have pushed someone out of a gate. It’s completely different.
I think we are good at brushing it off – but at the bottom of a race, it’s sometimes hard to talk to people or look at someone. In the female class, everyone automatically apologises – “I’m so sorry, are you okay?” The men don’t seem to apologise as much.
It’s like a different sport… and you are thriving in it.
I missed an entire season through Covid so it has taken time to catch up and get my head around the equipment, strategies and techniques. But I guess it’s an event I’m more favoured in now, rather than classic slalom.
Everything is different, including how the boat feels and performs in the water. It’s an 18kg plastic kayak instead of a 9kg carbon fibre kayak.
It’s really physical – I’ve got a rib injury from training at the moment. You wake up the day after a race and the elbows hurt – in the moment you don’t realise you are getting hit.
It’s such a physical contact sport – you are jostling for position the whole way down the course and there is so much going on. It’s really exciting.
There are a few rules – you are not allowed to ride up on someone or hit them in the head, but you can crash into an opponent.
We grew up paddling plastic boats and being out on rivers in New Zealand, and did a few fun extreme races. We are kind of used to that discipline already.
It also includes an “Eskimo” roll – what is that like to do?
The roll is difficult to do quickly and roll up in the right position to keep paddling.
In classic slalom, paddlers only roll when they have made a mistake and some paddlers have trouble with this technique.
I grew up playing on the river with my friends and doing a lot of rolling. I practised all of the rolling techniques as well as being able to roll on both sides. I also played canoe polo where one of the rules is that you can push people over. My childhood has really prepared me well for this discipline.
The roll is only dangerous if the river is shallow, but they are very mindful of where they put the Eskimo rolling zone for racing.
Kayak cross is a big mover – could it really take off when it appears at next year’s Olympics?
It first came in about six years ago and I always thought it could be a really popular sport to watch at the Games. You can see the action unfolding. People are changing positions down the course. It is so different to classic slalom – I’m taking it really seriously and New Zealand is stronger in the event across the board if you look at the results.
It’s not the only new part of your career and life – your previous coach Campbell Walsh was also your partner…
He went back to coach the British team and our relationship ended at the same time. My coach now is Michal Smolen, from the USA, who was fifth in the K1 at Tokyo.
Campbell really helped me grasp how to get better, the fundamentals, using quality over quantity training. I felt I got a degree in the sport with him.
But I want to take more ownership and Michal is the perfect fit, with a lot of knowledge and experience. I’ve been doing this for a while now so why wouldn’t I back myself to make key decisions?
But it is very much a team effort, even though people only see the individual. I’ve got a psychologist, nutritionist, physiologist, strength and conditioning coach, physiotherapist, performance life advisor, doctor and coach.
Let’s pick out one – where does the life coach point you?
She’s fantastic. This will definitely be my last Olympics and I’m looking at life outside of sport.
I am working for New Zealand Table Tennis in a media and communication role, a really cool job. I’m a bit of a creative – I’m doing a course in interior design, I’ve done graphic design, and have a business degree.
I’ve got so many hobbies I don’t have time for them all.
I’m also engaged to Brenden Yaxley who I met after the Tokyo Games. He was in the military, and is now building.
How did you meet?
My sister set us up on a blind date. We clicked – I’m very grateful for that.
It’s hard to meet someone when you are training so hard.
When I go home now, Brenden veers me off the subject, so I’m not thinking and talking about canoe slalom all the time.
I’m looking forward to not organising our lives around training schedules and kayak events. He’ll be glad too.
Luuka Jones celebrates claiming silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Photo / Photosport
Women in sport is a major topic – any thoughts?
I am really proud to be a female athlete in New Zealand, with so many strong female role models. My team is basically all females – all really amazing, strong women.
Look at our Olympic team and you see so many women performing on the world stage which is inspiring. Women’s sport is getting a lot more coverage, which in my opinion it deserves.
I was quite emotional as a female watching the women’s rugby World Cup and the Football Ferns beating Norway, seeing packed stadiums. There’s a shift happening. I’d like it to get to a point where a full stadium is the norm, not a news story any more.
Did you have any sporting heroes?
I remember being in Beijing aged only 19, and [shot putter] Val Adams made me a hot chocolate in the Olympic team village. Later, in the stadium, everyone stood for the national anthem when she won. It was such a standout moment.
And I remember [boardsailer] Barbara Kendall coming to speak to us at a sports academy in Rotorua. I remember her infectious personality – I found her inspiring as a person.
As it happens, you should join those two gold medallists as a five-time Olympian next year…
No one would have believed that was possible when I was young. It’s been quite a journey to get to the top.
I wasn’t the most talented person. I didn’t really have a natural feel for the water. I was travelling to international races and would finish nearly last, and I was last in Beijing [2008 Olympics]. I just kept persevering I guess – that was the difference.
But I was surrounded by all these incredible Kiwi athletes in Beijing and I remember thinking that it would be amazing to become a supported athlete and do this professionally.
Chris Rattue has been a journalist since 1980 and is one of the most respected opinion writers in New Zealand sports journalism.
