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“Holy s--t”: Butcher savours scintillating golden triumph in Paris 2024 upset
Stephen Foote • August 6th, 2024 10:53 am
A few hours after his career highlight, Finn Butcher was still a significant margin short of having processed his stunning gold medal effort in the inaugural men’s kayak cross final at Paris 2024 on Tuesday morning (NZ time).
‘The Butcher’ lived up to his moniker in the four-man final, exploding out of the gates and making mincemeat of his competition - which included world champion Brit and good mate Joe Clarke - before streaking clear late to claim the event’s inaugural Olympics gold.
Still breathless with excitement as he spoke with SENZ’s Scotty & Izzy, he had just two words to summarise his emotions when he realised there was nothing but choppy water between himself and the finish.
“Holy s--t.”
The Alexandra product credited his rapid work off the mark and down the ramp as the key to his victory.
“I had a good start and then I was leading from there,” Butcher explained. “I managed to get the first upstream by myself, that's kind of like a good marker.
“If you can get in and out by yourself and not have to defend too much, then you keep your speed and basically then I was just holding on.
“I had the British powerhouse, Joe (Clarke) behind me. I could feel him breathing down my neck, but just managed to keep enough of a gap and then basically knew I needed to execute that last one.”
Butcher has trained regularly alongside Clarke, who beat him to world championships gold back in 2021, describing the Englishman as “an absolute horse.”
The new event, which Butcher describes as “pretty hectic but bloody good fun” is ideally suited to paddlers like himself who have grown up on the NZ rapids.
As soon as it was confirmed the kayak cross would be added to the Canoe Slalom programme, Butcher says he and his teammates threw themselves into the deep end.
Butcher’s silver medal at the world champs three years ago was the successful litmus test he needed to set his sights on the top of the podium in Paris.
“Growing up in New Zealand we paddled a lot on normal rivers with plastic kayaks and also raced head-to-head with each other at various events around the country,” he explained.
“When they adapted that kind of racing to fit in the Olympic format, it was pretty exciting for us. We picked it up pretty quickly, and then, I managed to kind of get a bit of a breakaway silver medal at the 2021 worlds, which kind of put me in a good place for the Olympic cycle.
“We've just tried to keep the learning curve steep and rip into it, really.
“There's something about that Kiwi grit, keep staying in the fight and rip into it.
“I love it, man. It's so fun.”
The 29-year-old’s gold came just moments after Luuka Jones came up short in her final bid to win an Olympics medal in the women’s kayak cross, announcing later that this would likely be her fifth and final Games.
Butcher paid tribute to the Rio 2016 silver medallist for her trailblazing role in helping raise the sport’s profile in New Zealand and lay a foundation that he and many other budding paddlers could benefit from.
“She's an absolute legend,” he said. “Five Olympics is hectic.
"She's been at the top of her game for so long she's put a lot of eyes on our sport in New Zealand. Her performance in Rio came at a good time, probably for my career as well. When I was at that stage where I was deciding if I keep going with the sport or go and try to do a career outside of it.
“To be able to lay that down and just build a program for us was pretty incredible. She's been epic to have on the team and learn about her professionalism and how she prepares for big events, because she just has an absolute knack for putting it down when it matters.
“We'll definitely miss her but we're pretty grateful to have her for as long as we had her.”
Listen to the full interview below:
