Jacob Schopf admits barely a day goes past that he doesn’t think about the heartbreak of Tokyo 2020, when he and partner Max Hoff went within a heartbeat of winning men’s kayak double 1000m Olympic gold.
But now he has finally exorcised that ghost, teaming up with a different Max and in an hastily thrown together boat to snatch the title from the crew who dashed his Olympic dream.
Two days before the men’s kayak double 500m final, Max Lemke and Schopf were doing their best to talk down their chances.
The race was only an afterthought, a bit of fun, they said. They had come together as a crew far too late to seriously be considered as an Olympic medal contender.
On Friday, 24 hours after helping the German win men’s kayak four 500m gold, Lemke and Schopf were celebrating becoming K2 Olympic champions. Anyone who watched their early races was not surprised, but Lemke was still insisting their preparation was too short.
“This year at the ICF World Cup in Poznan was the first time we were in a K2 together,” Lemke said.
“The focus was 100 per cent on our K4, so we didn’t spend much time in the K2. It was just an add on and it turned out really good.”
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It might have felt like an add on and a bit of fun, but not for Schopf. That pain from three years earlier had been gnawing away at him ever since.
They went into that K2 1000m final as pre-race favourites, only to lose out to the Australians Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen.
And there they were again In Paris, sitting right alongside them.
“I think more than 1000 times about the final in Tokyo. Today was the perfect revenge I think,” Schopf said.
“It a race like three years ago, with the Aussies in the same boat, but this time 500m, not 1000, and this time with another Max.
“I remember to this day, and I felt a little bit nervous, but when we caught this perfect start, I felt it was going to be a perfect race.”
This week marked the return of the K2 500m to the Olympic programme for the first time since 2008, when it was replaced by the K2 1000m. Friday was the fourth time Germany had won the gold.
