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Olympic medalist reveals how she fixed her kayak... with a condom

It worked. And Jessica Fox's kayaking has no unplanned pregnancies that we know of.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper

Condoms have more than one use, it turns out. Australian Olympian Jessica Fox, who won a gold medal in canoe slalom on Thursday and a bronze in kayak slalom earlier in the week, demonstrated that in an Instagram video shared by The Highlights Club AU. Fox is seen repairing a hole in her kayak with what's captioned as a "carbon mixture," then stretching a condom and carefully sliding it on to protect the repair.

More on the Olympics

"Bet you never knew condoms could be used for kayak repairs," the caption on the video reads. "Very stretchy, much strong."

Fox didn't immediately respond to a request for comment (she's a little busy). But while games organizers have given out condoms to Olympic athletes since 1988 (the tradition began in Seoul in 1988 due to HIV and AIDS), things are a bit different this year. Due to the coronavirus, Olympic organizers haven't wanted to encourage Olympic hookups, so they reportedly aren't handing out free condoms until the athletes are ready to leave Japan.

Fox's ingenuity shouldn't surprise anyone. She now has four Olympic medals, and Team Australia proudly, and accurately, dubbed her "the most successful female paddler in Olympic canoe slalom history."

"I'm grateful to everyone who helped me get to this point," Fox said in the Instagram post. "I'm sending all my love and all my gratitude because I felt the support from all over the world."