Jessica Fox jokes that her fellow paddlers will think ‘good riddance’ when she competes for one last time this week at an U23 and Junior Canoe Slalom World Championships.

It’s true the 23-year-old Australian seems to have been around forever, turning up every 12 months to torment her fellow young paddlers and to waltz away with a bag full of gold medals.

2010 was the first time the world got to see the young Fox girl they’d been hearing whispers about for a few years.

At the time she was 15; confidence was not a problem for the teenager from Sydney’s western suburbs, as she clinically went about demolishing her opposition on the way to a K1/C1 golden double.

“I just remember thinking ‘finally I get to race at a Junior World Champs, because I’d done selection for a couple of years in Australia and was always too young to go away overseas,” Fox recalled this week.

“I’d watched the Junior Worlds before, so I was so excited to race because for me it was my first chance, my first international presence and I really wanted to prove myself against the world’s best.

“I remember that excitement, and it’s still here although it’s a little bit different this time.”

She comes to Bratislava this week with 10 individual Junior and U23 gold medals, making her easily the most successful athlete, male or female, in the history of the under-age World Championships.

She’ll be aiming for a fourth consecutive U23 K1 gold medal, and a fourth U23 C1 gold out of a possible five, having missed the top spot in 2015.

Not surprisingly, Fox, an Olympic silver and bronze medallist, admits to feeling a little sad about the end of an era.

“There’s a little bit of emotion,” she said.

“My seasons have always been jam-packed and since 2010 I’ve always competed at the junior or U23 Worlds, so there’ll be a big hole next year at this time. But I guess I’ll occupy myself, and support (sister) Noemie who has a few more years.”

“I do feel a little bit old actually, there are so many paddlers, especially in the junior category, I’ve never seen before.

“So many people have said to me ‘oh, you’re still U23’ I think they’ll say good riddance next year when I’m no longer here.”

So judging by the form guide (10 gold medals at this level, an Olympic silver and bronze, a stack of senior World Championship titles) one could easily assume this week should be a stroll in the park for Fox.

But it’s precisely because of her dominance at this level that makes it even more nerve-wracking for the Australian.

 “Obviously now there is added pressure and expectation. There’s so much more now on my shoulders because of everything else I have achieved outside of the junior level,” Fox said.

“I guess they think it’s easier because it’s the Junior and U23 World Championships, but actually if you look at the field, a lot of the girls here are actually racing all the World Cups and the World Championships, so it’s a tough field.

“I know it’s going to be tough, it’s never easy going into a competition. You can never say ‘I’m confident I am going to win’, because it’s canoe slalom and anything can happen. The course is always tough.”

Much has been written over the years of the famous Fox paddling pedigree, with the famous mother and father who rose to the top, the younger sister who looks set to carry on the family tradition of being a world-beater.

And then there’s the very public role Jessica and her family played in helping to get women’s C1 on to the Olympic program.

Fox said it makes her feel proud to see the number of young girls competing in C1 this week, compared to the numbers when she started at this level back in 2010.

“It does, it gives me such joy to see 15-year-olds charging down Niagara here, and switching hands and having a big smile on their face at the end of a session,” she said.

“It’s cool because a few years ago it wasn’t like that. It was tough for a lot of girls to even get to a World Championships because their Federations wouldn’t take them, and now we see three girls per team in a lot of countries.

“I love seeing that, and the Aussies are really proud of the role we’ve played in pushing the C1 field. We were there from the start, along with some of the Spanish, some of the Brits, so I think it’s going to continue to grow.

“Four years ago in Liptovsky we had about 62 C1 women, and this time we have about 78, so it’s great to see that more girls are paddling.”

Great enough to see Fox knocked off the top of the podium this week? You can guarantee there will be plenty lining up to try and rain on the final parade of arguably canoe slalom’s greatest ever under-age paddler.

Jessica Fox begins her final U23 World Championship campaign with the C1 on Wednesday. You can watch a video interview with Jess here.