Any good kayaker will know that they must have a life jacket and paddle to compete, but Aussie star Jessica Fox has revealed that her Olympics were saved when she used a CONDOM for some last-minute running repairs on her vessel.
Fox won bronze in the women’s K-1 slalom final earlier this week before picking up gold in the C-1 slalom on Thursday, adding to the silver she picked up at London 2012 and another bronze in Rio five years ago – but her pursuit of Olympic glory was almost in ruins after she suffered damage to the nose of her boat in advance of competition.
However, the wily Fox revealed to her fans on Instagram that her Olympics were saved at the last minute when she had the brainstorm to use a condoms to hold in place a carbon mixture which maintained her kayak's seaworthiness (swipe the Instagram post below for the video).
"Bet you never knew condoms could be used for kayak repairs," she wrote on Instagram, alongside an image of a person stretching the contraceptive over the nose of her boat.
"Very stretchy, much strong. It gives the carbon a smooth finish," added Fox.
An additional video posted by the Aussie shows the before and after shot of what turned out to be successful repairs.
Each of the athletes competing at this summer's Olympics in Tokyo will be handed condoms, although reportedly not until they are leaving the Games.
Free condoms have been given to athletes since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul which took place at the heights of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. The Tokyo organizing committee said, though, that the condoms weren't issued for the use of athletes, "but to help with awareness by taking them back to their own countries" a statement indicated.
It was also claimed that so-called 'cardboard beds' were issued to athletes in a bid to prevent sexual relations between athletes, though Olympic organizers have since stressed that the beds were designed in such a way so that they could be recycled.
