Naomi's Story
Born in Sydney, Naomi Flood excelled in swimming, surfing and surf lifesaving. Her big break came in 2003 when she won the Australian junior board race title and finished fifth in the open ironwoman event. Over the next three years she won state, Australian and World titles before winning the illustrious Australian Ironwoman final in 2006, the highest achievement in world lifesaving. In 2008 she won six gold and one silver medals at the World Championships and took out the World Ironwoman title (which she defended two years later). Flood has continued to excel in Australian and International Surf Lifesaving whilst also building a sprint kayaking career.
She competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the K2 500m with Lyndsay Fogarty finishing 12th.
She then competed at the 2013 and 2014 World championships in the K2 with Jo Brigden-Jones. In an upset Flood and Brigden-Jones were beaten in for the Australian K2 Rio quota spot by Alyssa Bull and Alyce Burnett. Flood then had to race Brigden-Jones for the K1 spot. After the pair couldn’t be separated in a series of head-to-head races in Australia, Flood made the A final at the Duisburg World Cup to win the ranking ‘race-off’ with Brigden-Jones and in turn earn selection on her second Olympic Team.
Flood faced a tough world class field in the K2 500m at Rio. She finished sixth in her semi-final which meant she did not advance to the A-Final.
