Big sister, little sister: Australian Jewish canoeist Noemie Fox wins gold medal

It was a classic little-sister copycat move: Noemie Fox nabbed a gold medal in Paris on Monday, after her big sister Jessica took home two of her own last week.

Noemie Fox’s gold medal came in a new event, kayak cross, that features a full-contact race with a 15-foot drop and a required 360-degree Eskimo roll. In fact, Noemie defeated Jessica — Australia’s all-time great paddler — in the event’s preliminary heats on Sunday.

Now, Noemie, 27, and Jessica, 30, have entered the thin ranks of Jewish sibling duos to win Olympic medals.

In 1960 and 1964, sisters Tamara and Irina Press each won gold medals for the Soviet Union: Tamara won for shot put both years and for the discus throw in 1964, while Irina won for 80-meter hurdles in 1960 and the pentathlon in 1964.

According to data compiled by the Jewish Virtual Library, there are also a handful of Jewish siblings to win silver and bronze medals in the same Olympics.

In 1920 and 1924, brothers Gérard and Maurice Blitz won silver with the Belgian water polo team. In 1964, Ronald and Vivian Joseph won bronze together in pair figure skating. And German cousins Alfred and Gustav Flatow — who both died in the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust — each won gold medals in gymnastics in 1896.

More recently, Josh and Nathan Katz both represented Australia in the 2016 Rio Olympics, becoming their country’s first brother duo to compete in judo at the same Olympics, though neither medaled. Both Katz parents were also athletes in the Japanese martial art, and their mother Kerrye competed in the 1988 Olympics. Josh is in Paris for his second Olympics.

For Israel, Hungarian-Israeli siblings Barnabás and Noa Szőllős skied at the 2022 Winter Olympics, while in Paris, siblings Ron and Leah Polansky both swam for their country.

Noemie Fox’s gold brings her family’s medal count to eight. In addition to Jessica Fox’s six medals, their mother, Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, who is Jewish and has coached Jessica, was a bronze medalist for France at the 1996 Olympics. (The three Fox women took a “girls trip” to Israel during Rosh Hashanah in 2019.) Their father, Richard Fox, who is not Jewish, finished in fourth place in the kayak slalom event in 1992.

The elder Fox jumped into the water to celebrate Noemie’s victory.

“I’m just full of emotion,” Jessica Fox said after her sister’s win, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s just incredible what Noemie did today to make it through each round with such composure.”

Noemie Fox said joining her sister as a gold medalist had left her speechless.

“You don’t really dare to dream this big, but I did this time,” Fox said, according to the Herald. “It was pure joy — there’s no way to describe that feeling. It’s crazy that it’s mine.”