When Jessica Fox won gold at the Toyko 2020 Olympic Games, she became the most successful paddler (that's male or female, for the record) in history.

In that moment, she became Australia's Golden Girl, and for good reason. After all, you don't just come out of nowhere and win gold at the Olympics — Fox has the kind of enviable track record that other professional athletes dream of.

That's 38 World Cup gold medals, nine World Championship titles, and six Olympic medals from three Games, to be specific. That includes winning gold in both the K1 (kayak) and C1 (canoe) finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It's (obviously) one of the busiest times to be a professional athlet e.

Her mother, Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, is a former slalom canoe Olympian herself, while Fox's father, Richard Fox, is a former slalom canoeist who competed for Great Britain. Fox's sister, Noemie Fox, is also a slalom canoeist, as is Fox's partner, Mathieu Biazizzo. Needless to say, Fox is surrounded by people who understand the pressures of the upcoming Paris Olympics!

The Daily Telegraph has reported that Fox quietly broke up with her long-term boyfriend Mathiew Biazizzo before the Olympics.

A source told the publication Fox and Biazizzo "simply grew apart".

Who is Jess Fox's former boyfriend Mathieu Biazizzo?

Mathieu Biazizzo is a French slalom canoeist who has been competing at an international level since 2009.

His birth-date is July 11, 1991, which makes him 33, and a Cancer, for all you astrology folks out there. While we're on the topic, Fox's birth-date is June 11, 1994, which makes her 30 (and a Gemini).

Like Fox, Biazizzo has won a number of accolades over the course of his career, including five medals (two of which were gold) at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships. He also won the overall World Cup title in the 2016 K1 class in 2016.

When did Jess Fox start dating Mathieu Biazizzo?

The timeline of exactly when Jess Fox and Mathieu Biazizzo first began dating is unclear, but it appears they've been together since at least 2015. It was around then that the couple began posting photos of one another on Instagram, hard launching their relationship before the term "hard launch" had even entered the lexicon.

An Instagram post from September 29, 2015, captioned: "A Sunday stroll in #centralpark #newyork 🍀🗽". Instagram/mathieu_biazizzo.

Jess Fox and Mathieu Biazizzo's Relationship.

While the couple kept their relationship pretty lowkey, Fox has spoken about Biazizzo in the past.

In a 2023 episode of the Stellar podcast Something to Talk About, Fox admitted that "there's always a bit of competition" between the couple — "especially if [they're] training together".

"I always try to beat him, but it’s also about learning from each other," Fox said.

Competitive natures aside, Fox went on to say that it was "really special to be able to share" their love for paddling together.

"And also the fact that he understands what I’m going through and I know what he’s going through," she continued. "It also helps that, you know, we go to bed early."

In 2018, Fox penned a contributor piece for Athlete's Voice, titled A letter to my canoe’s kidnapper (don't worry; she got her canoe back!).

In the article, Fox also wrote of her biggest motivators and supports in her career, and said that she'd "learned a lot" from Biazizzo, his skills, and his "aggressive style" as a paddler.

"Mathieu is quite a radical paddler in terms of the risks he takes, so training with him means I push myself to try and emulate that a bit," she wrote. "I know some people wouldn’t be able to train with their partners, but it’s been good, it’s fun."

Fox said that being in a relationship with another paddler gave them a deeper understanding of one another, because they knew "the highs and lows, the choices and work that goes in to make our sporting dreams come true".

"It's nice to be able to share that with someone," she added.

Fox also shared that the couple "mainly speak French" when they're together. Fox was born in Marseille, France, and Biazizzo is also French. His English is "very good", according to Fox, and the couple sometimes combine languages and speak "Frenglish" with one another.

At the time, Fox wrote that they were "lucky that [she could] travel over to France for training camps and he [would come] to Australia in the winter time for his block of training". She said that they were "never apart for more than a month or two", but their situation could have changed since then, of course.

Feature image: Instagram

This article was first published in April 2024, and has been updated with new information.

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