Lucien Delfour

Fast Facts

Sport: Canoe Slalom
Event: K1
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Making the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Teams
Year Born: 1988
Place Born: French Polynesia

Born in Papeete in French Polynesia, Lucien Delfour or 'Lulu' as he is affectionately known, started canoeing in 1997 at age 8.

Delfour enjoyed both the slalom and downriver disciplines until he made the choice to focus solely on slalom as a 14-year-old.

He had his first international podium finish in 2006 when he won silver in the European Junior Championships in France and went on to make six World Cup podium appearances as a senior between 2012-2019.

In 2010, Delfour moved to Australia and four years later became an Australian citizen.

Training under Julien Billaut, he secured the single men’s Rio 2016 K1 canoe slalom spot after a head-to-head battle with Australian Jaxon Merritt at the 2016 Oceania Championships, but at the Games, he was eliminated in the heats after a controversial ruling that left him in 17th, two places outside of the semi-final quota.

Out for Olympic redemption, Lulu successfully secured the only men's K1 spot for Tokyo 2020 after taking gold at the 2020 Oceania Canoe Slalom Championships and 2020 Australian Open Canoe Slalom. 

Delfour would make his second Olympic appearance at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games in the K-1 canoe Slalom discipline. He would enjoy a strong start to the games, achieving a time of 91.10 in the first round of the preliminaries, placing him in the bronze medal position.

In the following semi-final round of the competition, Lulu would earn a competitive time of 97.52, earning him qualification into the final of the event. Unfortunately, his final time of 102.33 would not be enough for medal contention, earning the Australian an overall 8th placing in the competition.