26 April 2022
By Göran R Buckhorn
James Fox, GB’s most successful Paralympic rower, is quitting.
After a 10-year career, when no one managed to beat him in the boat, Para-rower James Fox announced yesterday that he is retiring from the GB Rowing Team.
Fox, who started rowing at age 11, made his GB Para squad debut in 2013. He has become World Champion five times, European Champion once and won two gold medals at the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (rowed in 2021). Fox is still the current World, European and Paralympic Champion. He will turn 27 on the 1 of May.
Fox wrote on Instagram:
After 10 unbeaten years in The Team I’m deciding to call it quits. I’m really proud of what we have achieved in that 10 years, both on and off the water, but what means most to me is that I am able to bow out on my own terms; I’m not injured or ill and I’m stepping away at my peak. As rowers we constantly tread a fine line between training hard and overdoing it, and I’ve been caught on the wrong side of that line a few times, so this isn’t always the case. I feel incredibly lucky to have the choice.
He continued:
Onwards. I have new goals and motivations but I’ll still be knocking around.
Nick Baker, Paralympic Head Coach for GB Rowing Team, said in a statement: “James Fox has been a relentlessly driven and successful member of our team, often the joker in the pack and the loveable rogue, but also the most successful Paralympic rower GB has produced. We wish him all the best for whatever comes next and I hope he stays in touch!”
Louise Kingsley, GB Rowing Team Director of Performance, added: “James has been an important member of the Paralympic programme over a 10-year period where the standard of the event has risen steeply and the race distance has doubled.
“To start at the top and keep progressing to stay at the top is a very impressive achievement and a testament to James’ dedication. I am sure James will be successful in whatever he turns his hand to in the future.”