Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Canoe star Mallory Franklin determined to put paddle to the medal
ONLY two things frighten the life out of Britain’s leading canoe slalomist Mallory Franklin.
The first is kayaking on the open sea. This relates to an unfortunate incident a decade ago when she was backflipped out of her boat and suffered a panic attack.
The second is that she is terrified of becoming Olympic champion.
It is not the competition or the event that scares her when she looks ahead to Tokyo 2020.
It is all the razzmatazz that follows — the fame and trappings of celebrity.
As any top sportsperson will tell you, once the genie is out of the bottle, it is hard to put it back in.
Franklin said: “The thought terrifies me. The experience of it, all the attention.
"I’m very much a secluded person. I like my own bubble. When I think about it now, I 100 per cent want to go to Tokyo. Then I think, ‘But everyone will know who I am!’
“In some ways the attention is nice. It’s nice to be recognised.
“But slalom, and canoeing in general, doesn’t get much media attention. It peaks at the Olympics.
“We compete at the top level but spend a lot of time hidden. That shifts for the Olympics.
“You almost become important. Suddenly you become a focus. People want to speak to you. You have this whole external pressure that isn’t normally there.”
Franklin, who grew up in Windsor and has a degree in sports therapy, is a shy personality who comes alive when she is in a slalom boat.
And slowly but surely, she is determined to become more confident and vocal on the big stage.
The 25-year-old is undertaking media training, having accepted that her first-ever media interview, at the age of 16, was a total disaster.
She laughed: “Watch my first TV interview with the BBC in 2010. It’s hilarious. I was asked loads of questions. I was petrified.
Mallory Franklin (Canoe slalom)
Age: 25
Place of birth: Ascot, Berkshire
Career highlight: 3 x world titles (2017 C1 & C1 Team; 2018 C1 Team)
National Lottery funding: “It allows me to train at a world-class venue, alongside some of the best paddlers in the world, train abroad and travel to international competitions. I’m able to seek help and guidance from top-level support staff, which enables me to perform at my best. The biggest effect from National Lottery funding is access to my coach Craig Morris, who has helped me grow into the person I am.”
“They didn’t tell me where to look, so I looked at the floor. It was a safe place where I didn’t have to see anyone’s face!”
One glance at her CV would suggest Franklin will be in the hunt for Olympic medals next year.
In 2017 she became the C1 world champion. Last year in Rio she had to settle for individual silvers in the C1 and K1 classes. She has won the European title multiple times.
And only last month she won double gold medals, K1 and C1, at the World Cup event at the Lee Valley White Water Centre, the location for the London 2012 Olympics.
It was one of the rare occasions she beat her nemesis, Jessica Fox, the all-conquering Australian.
Franklin said: “Jess is a bit of a bugbear! She’s very good at canoeing but she isn’t unattainable.
“It will be tough, of course. She has more of a pedigree than I have. But so much within the sport can change. It’s so cut-throat. It can change in a second.”
Franklin’s retired parents used to work as data analysts for British Airways and the family spent a lot of time in the United States.
Mallory, whose first name was inspired by the Enid Blyton children’s novels Malory Towers, is in the middle of two brothers.
She took up the sport aged five and learned to paddle on the River Thames at the Windsor & District Canoe Club.
Franklin now trains full-time at Lee Valley and lives in Hertfordshire with her paddler fiance and their two cats.
She said: “There was a bit of a disagreement about what we’d call them. I wanted to name them Monty and Python. Our other housemate wanted to call them Maverick and Goose after Top Gun characters.
“In the end we settled on Monty and Maverick. They are females — adorable and ridiculously friendly.”
As for her sea phobia, this stems from a trip to Teesside. She explained: “You shouldn’t really go on the sea in slalom boats but I had agreed to go.
“I was with someone I had known since I started paddling. He was on his surfboard. A big wave — about six foot in my opinion — hit me and I got backflipped by it.
“Every time I tried to breathe I got crashed by a wave and I started to have a panic attack. Then my friend came and got me. It left me terrified of the sea for a long time.
“My fiance went out a lot in the sea along the Welsh coast. He will tell me it’s fine. But I say, ‘No, it’s not’. At least at Lee Valley, it’s controlled and you can turn it off!”
