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Mallory Franklin knows what it feels like to stand on an Olympic podium, and she hopes in Paris she will be joined by her British team-mates.
Canoe slalom has been one of Britain’s most reliable sports, with at least one medal won at every Games since 2000.
In Tokyo, Franklin kept up that run with silver in the women’s C1, the event where she has twice been a world champion, including at Lee Valley last year.
The 30-year-old is looking forward to living the full Olympic experience this time after the Covid-restricted Games in Japan, and is happy to share the burden of expectation.
“We’re going into this Games with a really strong team,” she told the PA news agency. “Across the eight boats, we’ve got four world champions, and even those that aren’t world champions are still medallists.
“That kind of takes the pressure off individual people. I probably went into Tokyo feeling a little bit like a reasonable amount of the pressure was on me as the consistent medallist but it’s nice in some respects to have that balance.
“We really do have the ability to come away with so many medals, which is really cool, and hopefully as a team we can come together and allow that to happen.”
British hopes have been increased by the inclusion in the programme of kayak cross, where athletes race directly against each other, for the first time.
Joe Clarke, the K1 gold medallist from Rio eight years ago, and Kimberley Woods are both reigning world champions, and Franklin and Woods could find themselves going head-to-head in the French capital.
“It’s really cool,” said Franklin. “Kayak cross is an interesting discipline. Kim’s really strong and I think the ability for us both to sit on the kayak cross startline, it’s an amazing opportunity for Britain.
“We’ve been against each other for a lot of our careers now in all three disciplines we both paddle in. It can be really tough at times but I think we both definitely want the best for each other.
“I always want her to do her best, and then just sometimes maybe hope that my best is better.”
Action on the water at the National Olympic Nautical Stadium begins on Saturday, with the women’s C1 final on Wednesday and the kayak cross medals awarded on August 5.
Franklin insisted she is not putting pressure on herself to upgrade silver to gold, saying: “I don’t think about it too much. I’m well aware of the fact that canoe slalom’s canoe slalom and you can’t really control it.
“Getting a gold would be amazing but for me I just want to be able to sit on that start-line happy in who I am and what I’m trying to do, and just try and have freedom and get back to why I started canoeing and enjoying being on the water and trying to really let that come out.”
