Australia’s record-breaking canoe sprint pair take Olympic bronze in men’s K2 final

After setting an Olympic record in the semi-final, Australian canoe pair Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen settled for the bronze medal in the men’s K-2 500m canoe sprint following a rapid start from Germany.

The Australians are reigning Olympic champions after winning the K2 1000m sprint in Tokyo, but the event was ditched for Paris to align the men’s and women’s programs. That forced the duo to switch into the shorter 500m race, but they showed no signs of difficulty adapting as they blasted out an Olympic record in the semi-final at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

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In the final it was a different story: the German pair of Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke shot out at the start and set a pace the Australians could not match. Green and Van der Westhuyzen were in the silver medal position for most of the race, before a late surge from Hungary’s Nádas Bence and Tótka Sándor pipped them on the line.

“We didn’t have the greatest start,” Green said afterwards. “I kind of stuffed it up a little bit. I’m a little bit unhappy with that. At the end of the day, we’re still able to get on to the podium. We have done a lot of work. So we’ve got to be happy with that.”

It is yet another close call for Australia in the canoe sprint: on Thursday, Van der Westhuyzen’s brother Pierre won silver for Australia as part of the K4 500m crew – missing out on gold by a mere four tenths of a second.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, Australia’s Ella Beere and Aly Bull finished seventh in the women’s K2 500m sprint, in a race won by New Zealand pair Lisa Carrington and Alicia Hoskin.

Green and Van der Westhuyzen, both 25, shot to prominence after their gold medal in Tokyo, with both having inspiring tales to share. Van der Westhuyzen was born in South Africa and grew up in the Cape Winelands, but relocated to Australia six years ago to pursue his sporting dreams, joining the sports program at Bond University. Australian citizenship and a spot in the national team soon followed.

“As a little kid I never thought I would be competing at this level, fighting for medals,” Van der Westhuyzen said. “Part of why we do it is we want to inspire the next generation and hopefully the next little kid to do it better than ourselves. We have a great team culture so just to be part of all of that is inspiring for us as well. It’s been such a cool journey and super stoked to come here today and have another good race with Tommy.”

Green, meanwhile, was raised by his mother after she fled family violence; he has previously spoken about a turbulent childhood. The mother and son pairing have since founded a charity to improve access to education in foster care homes.

Australia has had a strong Olympics in the canoe and kayak, after sisters Jess and Noemie Fox swept the women’s canoe and kayak slalom and kayak cross events between them. The K4 crew’s silver medal and now Green and Van der Westhuyzen’s bronze round out the impressive haul so far. The canoe sprint events conclude on Saturday.