Australian 24-year-old Sprint canoeist Thomas Anthony Green OAM and Jean van der Westhuyzen have competed in the K2 1000-meter event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he earned a gold medal. In Tokyo, he also participated in the K1 1000 meters, placing sixth. Now as of 2024, he is qualified for the Paris Olympics.
Green Moving closer to another Olympic Victory
Thomas Green came close to winning another Olympic spot. He finished fourth in the final race for the men’s K1 1000-meter event. The top 5 paddlers were very close, with only 2.3 seconds separating them. This made for extremely fast and intense racing.
By securing fourth place at the Canoe Sprint Grand Prix 2 and Oceania Championships on Sunday, Green’s performance has put him in a leading position to be selected for the K1 1000-meter event at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“The challenge of the new event is great. It’s keeping us on our toes,” “It’s fast and very exciting.”
Thomas said
Thomas Green Whole Family is filled with Passion For Paddling
Thomas Green was born in 1999 in Queensland and lives on the Gold Coast. His mother was a surf lifesaver, and Thomas and his brothers and sisters also joined the Nippers (junior surf lifesaving) program at a young age.
After that, Thomas and his siblings decided to start kayaking to improve their surf ski skills for surf lifesaving. Thomas and his siblings began by simply paddling with friends in the creek and then joined the Currumbin Creek Canoe Club.
Apart from kayaking, Thomas works as a lifeguard for the Gold Coast Council. He has also started a university course in Youth Work Practice because he wants to become a social worker in the future.
Thomas Green is in a Happy Relationship
Thomas Green is in a happy romantic relationship. His partner’s name is Josephine Marie. Josephine has a university degree in Global Economics and Business Management.
Thomas and Josephine share photos of each other on their individual Instagram accounts. The couple travels a lot and has been posting pictures of themselves together on Instagram since 2018.
Following Passion to Start a Career
Thomas was first introduced to kayaking through surf lifesaving when he was 10 years old. He began paddling in 2012 with the Currumbin Creek Canoe Club. Now, he is a world junior champion and an Olympic gold medal winner.
Coming from a family involved in surf lifesaving, Thomas was always around the water. In 2012, along with his brother Lachy and sister Britt, Thomas competed at the Outrigging World Championships.
At first, Thomas was just having fun paddling in a kayak around his surf lifesaving racing and training. But John Newtown, an experienced kayaker, encouraged him to take flatwater paddling seriously.
Within a few weeks, Thomas was competing at the Australian Canoe Sprint Championships and won 11 medals in his division, including three gold medals.
Also Read: Meet Australian Sprint Canoeist, Jean van der Westhuyzen
When Thomas was 16 years old in 2015, he made his first Australian team for the Olympic Hopes Regatta in Poland. There, he won a silver medal in the K1 500m and a bronze in the K1 1000m.
In 2017, Thomas returned to open water competition where he won the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships and was named the Gold Coast Junior Athlete of the Year.
Thomas got back into kayaking and won gold in the K2 1000m at the Under 23 World Championships In 2018.
In 2019, Thomas was part of the Paddle Australian Team of the Year and made the Australian World Championship Team. He had an incredible performance at the Under-23 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, winning gold and becoming a dual world champion in the K1 1000m and K4 500m events.
Result After Passion and Hard work meet
In 2019, Thomas became a dual world champion in the under-23 age group when he won gold medals at the U23 World Championships in the K1 1000m event and the K4 500m event (along with teammates Jackson Collins, Riley Fitzsimmons, and Jean van der Westhuyzen).
In 2020 he partnered with Joel McKitterick and won gold in the K2 1000m at the 2018 Under 23 World Championships. Thomas made the jump to elite senior-level competition and represented Australia at a senior World Championships for the first time, where he finished fourth in the K4 500m and eighth in the K1 500m.
By 2021, at age 20, Thomas was selected for both the K1 events and secured his spot on the Australian team for the Tokyo Olympic Games. At the Tokyo Olympics, Thomas won the gold medal in the K2 1000m event with a time of 3:15.28, becoming an Olympic Champion. This was the first time Australia had won an Olympic gold medal in that event.
Thomas was the standout paddler at the first of two Olympic selection events leading up to Tokyo, winning the K1 1000m, K1 500m, K2 1000m, and U23 K2 1000m races.
Murray Stewart and Thomas’s mentor Ken Wallace, the young paddler showed his class by winning with a time of 3:36.15, finishing 1.10 seconds ahead of Jean van der Westhuyzen and Rio 2016 Olympian Jordan Wood.
Currently, Thomas is training hard and setting his sights on the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics which will begin on Friday, July 26th, 2024. Thomas and Jean van der Westhuyzen have a new goal in mind for those Games.
