Finn Butcher knew he had achieved something pretty special when he punched the air after snatching Olympic gold in front of a euphoric capacity Paris crowd last year.
The noise was deafening. Sure, there were no French paddlers in the final, but the high energy head-to-head, shoulder-to-shoulder, boat-to-boat spectacle unfolding in front of the jam-packed crowd on a scorching Paris afternoon gave the atmosphere a crackle that was infectious.
And there, basking in the moment, was an unassuming, and maybe even a little overwhelmed, bloke from the tiny nation of New Zealand – a country which had never before won an Olympic Canoe Slalom gold medal.
It shouldn’t have been a major surprise. Butcher was the World Championships silver medallist in 2021 and had been a consistent performer in the years leading up to Paris.
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But nothing can prepare for the thrill and excitement of an Olympics, and perhaps he didn’t fully comprehend the significance of his achievement at first. The 29-year-old Butcher had not only chiselled his name into New Zealand Olympic history, but he was, and always will be, the first-ever male kayak cross gold medallist.
“It still gives me tingles. It was pretty special,” a reflective Butcher said this week.
“We set out to race, and really enjoy the racing, so I’m just stoked that I have some really good memories from that.
“It’s hard to say that if I didn’t win we would have had the same memories, but I’m sure we would. It’s been awesome since then.”
We catch up with Butcher in a reflective moment, sanding down his kayak ahead of his first race at the 2025 International Canoe Federation Slalom World Championships in Sydney.
It’s a venue he first paddled on as a 14-year-old, and he’s been coming back almost every year since. It is, he said, like a second home to him.
But this time it’s a bit different. He arrives as an Olympic champion, and has a huge target on his back in an event where fierce contact is permitted.
Pressure? Not really.
“I just get on with it I guess,” he said.
“I don’t notice the pressure too much, I just try and get on with it. I have the mindset to do my best all the time, and that’s all you control. But I guess there is a bit of outside pressure and expectation, it definitely has in parts during the season played on my mind.”
So back to the Olympics. He knew he had achieved something pretty special, but it really hit home when he got back to New Zealand and popped down to the local grocery store.
“I’m being asked for photos and signatures at the supermarket,” he laughed.
“Absolutely people are recognising me, which is pretty crazy, but it’s so cool. People just love it.
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“I had so much feedback from people outside of paddling who said that kayak cross was their favourite sport they watched at the Olympics. I’m sure that did me a few favours with the public.”
But Butcher is a pretty down-to-earth character – perhaps why he was so calm in the feisty Olympic cauldron in Paris – and hasn’t changed his routine or lifestyle much since becoming an Olympic champion.
It does help that he has a bit more money now.
“It’s interesting, it took me a little bit to adjust when I would hear Olympic champion in the commentary, it is a privilege to have that title,” Butcher said.
“I still go canoeing every day, and I still love going paddling and racing, and trying to get better, so in that way it hasn’t changed anything.
“But in other ways it’s opened a lot of doors, it’s made things more sustainable financially as well. I’ve got more funding and picked up a few good sponsors as well.”
He has to wait until Saturday to compete for the first time in a kayak cross World Championships as the Olympic champion.
In the meantime, it’s the men’s kayak – an event in which he’s never won a World Championship medal, which will take his attention first.
Full coverage of the ICF Slalom World Championships can be viewed on the Planet Canoe YouTube channel.
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