Ben Fouhy


Ben Fouhy is a New Zealand flatwater and marathon canoeist who has been competing since the early 2000s. Competing in three Summer Olympics, he won the silver in the K-1 1000 m event at Athens in 2004, as well as finishing fourth in the 2008 Olympics and ninth in the 2012 Olympics in the same event. He is the recipient of the 2003 Halberg Award for NZ Sportsman of the Year and a former world record holder in the K1 1000m event.

Career history

Fouhy began kayaking competitively in 2002, following a background in multi-sport events. He discovered an aptitude for paddling after increasing his kayak training to improve his overall multisport performance.
After a handful of domestic wins Fouhy, an unknown on the international field at the time, took a surprise gold medal at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Gainesville, Georgia, USA, after which he won several Sportsperson of the Year titles including the coveted Halberg Award.
The following year, at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Fouhy achieved New Zealand’s first medal in Kayaking since the 1980s.

Career highlights