The 35-year-old’s ambitions of reaching a fifth Olympics once seemed fanciful as she spent more than a year recovering after being diagnosed with long Covid in early 2022. Never mind hurtling down a white-water course in pursuit of medals – there were periods when everyday tasks would induce a fatigue that would put Jones on her back for the rest of a day. “I’d get really tired from just going out and mowing the lawn or going for a walk,” she told Reuters in an interview.
Her recovery was laden with setbacks. She thought she was over the worst after a couple of months’ rest at home in 2022 but “almost fell off a cliff” with fatigue after heading overseas for a training block. She spent much of the New Zealand winter that year in a hyperbaric chamber and later suffered a neck injury and a string of illnesses that brought her to the brink of quitting.