A year ago Aimee Fisher didn't want to go on in canoe racing. Now she's off to the Olympics for a second time.
Fisher's been named in the six-strong New Zealand women's squad for Paris, competing in the K1 500 and the K2 500.
It comes about a year after being beaten by Dame Lisa Carrington in a tight race-off for the one K1 spot allowed for the world championships. It was there at Lake Karapiro where it all started to take its toll.
Speaking to 1News at the announcement of the team at Auckland's Lake Pupuke today, Fisher says frankly of that race-off: "I just got outclassed.
The 2021 World Champion is part of the largest Kiwi women's canoe sprint team for a Games. (Source: 1News)
"I was out the back of that stadium with my dad crying, crying so hard that I nearly threw up. I think it was just a moment of 'what now'. Like, I don’t know if I can do this any more. Maybe a bit of a realisation that I need to find something else to do with my life, which was pretty confronting."
Fisher says it was the rock bottom of her kayaking career. But she's refocused and picked herself back up from those lows to earn her spot on the plane to France.
"It means so much. It’s been pretty turbulent, at times, there’s been some low points, but I wouldn’t change a thing.
"I love who I’m becoming walking through this fire and I’m excited to see who I can be on the other side of the Olympics. This is hard. You know it’s still four months out but the pressure is on, every day matters. It’s white-hot pressure and you just keep walking forward."
The 2021 world champion quit the elite squad a year earlier, after disagreeing with their approach.
She essentially gave up any chance of going to the Tokyo Olympics because of it. But, after meetings with Canoe Racing New Zealand and a desire to get back, Fisher re-joined the team last year and, along with Danielle McKenzie, qualified a second Kiwi K2 boat for Paris at the Australia nationals in February.
McKenzie didn't make the cut for Paris. But Fisher's grateful to her and to both Carrington and Alicia Hoskin, who gave up their spot in the K2 at the world championships, to give the other duo a chance.
"I was so impressed," Fisher says with a smile. "They most likely gave up a world championship title.
"For Alicia, she didn’t have a title at that point. So for her to sacrifice that, for women’s sport, for the future paddlers I was in awe of that decision. That was a really big sacrifice and I think when you make sacrifices like that, it is fruitful. It will come back around."
The squad includes Carrington, who will try to defend her K1 and K2 500 titles, as well as win K4 gold for the first time alongside Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan.
Lucy Matehaere will partner Fisher in the K2 and is the K4 reserve.
The squad leaves for Europe this weekend, where they'll compete in some World Cup regattas, key lead-up events to the Olympics.
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