Jo Brigden-Jones

Jo Brigden-Jones (born 19 April 1988) is an Australian kayaker. She has been selected to represent Australia at 2012 Summer Olympics in the K-4 500 m event.

Nicknamed Goanna Gypsy, Brigga, Joey and Jo Toe, Brigden-Jones was born on 19 April 1988 in Mona Vale, New South Wales. She attended Newport Public School before going to Oxford Falls Grammar School and Freshwater Senior Campus for high school. From 2006 to 2010, she attended the University of Technology, Sydney where she earned a Bachelor of Nursing. She earned a Graduate Diploma of Clinical Practice (Paramedic) from Charles Sturt University. In 2010, she injured her shoulder that required ten months out of competitive sport. She is a nurse. As of 2012, she lives in the Sydney suburb of Mona Vale.

Brigden-Jones is a member of the Manly Surf Life Saving Club. She started surf lifesaving when she was six years old through an Australian programme called Nippers. In her mid-teens, she left the sport for a while but took it up again when she was nineteen. At that time, she added surfski paddling to her surf lifesaving competition events. She has competed for Manly in surf lifesaving competitions.

Brigden-Jones is 182 centimetres (72 in) tall and weighs 73 kilograms (161 lb).

Brigden-Jones came into the canoeing through surf lifesaving in 2001 following a talent identification test. By nineteen years of age, she was participating in flatwater kayaking. She was coached by Guy Wilding from 2007 to 2010. In 2011, she switched coaches with Martin Marinov becoming her new coach. Her primary training base is Narrabeen, Sydney with a secondary training base on the Gold Coast of Queensland. She is a member of the Sydney Northern Beaches Kayak Club, and has a canoe scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport and the NSW Institute of Sport.

In 2010, Brigden-Jones was ranked second in the world in the solo kayak paddler event. She finished third in the K2 200m event and fifth in the K4 500m event at the 2011 World Championships in Szeged, Hungary. She finished 7th in the K4 500m event at the 2011 World Cup 3 in Duisburg, Germany. She finished fifth in the K4 500m event at the 2011 World Cup 2 in Racice, Czech Republic. She finished first in the K4 500m event at the 2012 Oceania Championships in Penrith, Australia. She finished first in the K4 500m event at the 2012 National Championships in Penrith, Australia. At a 2012 World Cup event in Moscow in the two person kayak, she finished first.

Brigden-Jones has been selected to represent Australia at 2012 Summer Olympics in the K-4 500 m event. The London Games will be her Olympic debut. Before the start of the Games, she and her canoe teammates trained in Italy at the AIS European Training Centre located in Varese.