Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Canoe Slalom - Women's C1 - Semifinal - Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre, Tokyo, Japan - July 29, 2021. Luuka Jones of New Zealand in action REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
(Reuters) - Canoe slalom athlete Luuka Jones will become New Zealand's third woman to compete at a fifth Olympics when she bids for a second medal at the Paris Games after overcoming a battle with long COVID.
The 35-year-old, who took silver in the K1 at the 2016 Rio Games, will join shot put great Valerie Adams and former Olympic champion sailor Barbara Kendall as a five-time Olympian when she takes to the water at Vaires-sur-Marne outside Paris.
New Zealand's first female Olympic canoe slalom paddler and first medallist, Jones has competed at every Games since her debut as a teenager at Beijing in 2008.
"I remember nearly retiring after the London Olympics. It felt like enough. I didn't know if I had more to give," she told reporters on Wednesday after being named in New Zealand's Olympic team.
"So to be here today and competing at my fifth, it's unreal."
Jones, who grew up in the coastal town of Tauranga on New Zealand's North Island, was diagnosed with long COVID in early-2022 and had to take a year off training and competing.
She returned to competition and won a World Cup gold last October in kayak cross at the Paris Games' Olympic venue.
Kayak cross, the extreme canoe slalom event which sees four competitors charge down the river course through rapids and gates, will make its Olympic debut at the Paris Games, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11.
"It was a really shaky time," she said of her battle with long COVID.
"I'm very grateful to be back and to have my health intact and to be feeling strong on the water.
"It puts it into perspective, I guess, when you have your health taken away from you. It makes you appreciate it a lot more."
Jones will be joined on the canoe team by Finn Butcher, who will make his Olympic debut three years after being a reserve in the K1 event at the Tokyo Games.
Butcher, 28, took kayak cross silver at the World Cup in October and has also qualified for the K1 at Paris.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
