Jackson Collins

A decision to abandon a dream of playing AFL has Gold Coast sprint kayaker Jackson Collins following in his father’s footsteps to the Olympics.

A former Gold Coast Suns academy player who was rookie listed by the Sydney Swans, Jackson’s AFL career was ruined by constant knee injuries.

“I couldn’t play (AFL) anymore because I had knee injuries after surgery and lots of complications with that,” Jackson said.

“It was (shattering). You could do something amazing and get paid a lot of money to do it, but all of a sudden your future and your dreams are gone, so that was really tough.

“I had reoccurring patella dislocations. My knee caps have popped out six times on my left and four times on my right, so they said if it happened again after the surgery I had done, that was it. And that happened again.”

The injuries forced him to return to his first love of paddling and after a gold medal at the canoe sprint world championships in Canada in 2022, he might be able to emulate his dad Daniel, a sprint kayaker who went to four Olympics and won silver in the K2 500m at Sydney 2000 and bronze in Atlanta in 1996.

Jackson developed his love for paddling as a surf-lifesaving nipper, but it was not until his AFL dream was over that he got serious about it and began to dream of the Olympics.

“I always competed in surf-lifesaving doing ski paddling, so when I stopped playing AFL I made the transition into kayaking full time, it just seemed like the logical thing to do,” Jackson said.

“It wasn’t until I completely gave up AFL that I thought, ‘Ok, if I’m going to do this I want to do it properly and want to go to the Olympics’. I was playing at the highest level in footy and I wanted to compete at the highest possible level in kayaking as well, and that’s the Olympics, so as soon as I made the transition, that became the goal.”

In 2019, Jackson became Under 23 world champion when he won gold at the U23 World Championships in the K1 1000m and K4 500 (with teammates Thomas Green, Riley Fitzsimmons and Jean van der Westhuyzen).

Jackson and Aly Bull won gold in the mixed K2 500m at the 2022 world championships on Lake Banook in Novia Scotia, Canada.

“It’s awesome, every time I think about it, I keep smiling,” Jackson said of the win. “It’s such an amazing feeling to be able to go out there and race with Bully and now to be world champions together.”

After spending time in Sydney pursuing his AFL dream, Jackson is happy to be back on the Gold Coast and close to his surf-lifesaving roots.

“Surf lifesaving is massive for me, it’s where I get a lot of my joy and it’s such a great outlet. It’s really nice to just go along and race and not be too fussed about the result. I can put a lot of pressure on myself in my kayak, so when I get out on the ski it’s just for fun which is really nice,” Jackson said.

On Olympic debut Jackson, with fellow debutants Pierre van der Westhuyzen, Noah Havard and triple Olympian Riley collected a silver medal in the K4 500m at Paris 2024.

It was nearly gold, as a photo finish with the defending Olympic champions Germany saw them place second by just 0.04 of a second. Not since London 2012 had an Australian men's K4 team won an Olympic medal.