Silver medal star Joe Clarke has his eyes on LA in 2028

“That’s what’s next, isn’t it?” says Clarke. “I don’t want to look too far ahead but that is how we work as Olympians, in four-year cycles.

“I feel like I am already signed up for the next one and I have only just finished competing here.

“My wife knows and fully expects me to say the same, she knows what she has signed up for too.”

It is not that Clarke wants to quickly forget Paris. Though he leaves with silver, having arrived hunting two golds, there is satisfaction in having done everything he could in both the K1 slalom and kayak cross to achieve the target.

With a little more fortune, a turn of the paddle here, a run of the water there, he might well have done so.

A fifth-placed finish in last week’s slalom, after qualifying quickest for the final, was followed by Monday’s second place in kayak cross. Clarke, a three-time world champion in the discipline and favourite to win inaugural Olympic gold, won every round up to the final, where a collision with Germany’s Noah Hegge right at the start ultimately cost him dear.

The morning after he is in a happy, if philosophical mood.

“It is very much what happens on the day. I think of you re-run that final I could easily have a gold,” he says.

“But you can’t look back with any regrets. I have none of those with my performance, or the way I brought myself about for that final.

“I was last off in the slalom final, a lot of pressure. I think I delivered extremely well, it just wasn’t to be that day. I had to pick myself up again to go in the kayak cross and with that final, the way it went, silver feels like a win.

“I sit here the following morning and I am not disappointed at all. I earned that, I deserved that and I worked very hard to get to that point and I think I showed the best of me on that day, I can’t do any more. I just want to enjoy every moment.”

That last verb is key because there have been times since he burst onto the scene, winning slalom gold in Rio eight years ago, when Clarke really wasn’t enjoying himself.

After missing out on selection for Tokyo 2020 in somewhat controversial fashion, there was at least one moment when he considered walking away from the sport for good.

Clarke points to the pandemic and enforced break as a turning point.

“It really brought about the enjoyment of why I do the sport and it reinvigorated me,” he explains.

There have been changes off the boat too. Obvious as it might seem, Clarke is very different to the 23-year-old who became an Olympic champion when no-one was expecting it. He’s gotten married and become a father, with both wife Annabel and one-year-old son present every day at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, the latter decked out in a t-shirt with Clarke’s face and the words Go Daddy printed on the front.

“He picks it up in the morning and says 'dada' and hugs it,” says Clarke. “It's the cutest thing you'll ever see. I'm very proud to have him here as he's my absolute world.”

Getting to LA, Clarke knows, won’t be easy. Each nation is allowed only one qualifier for the singles events and domestic competition is only getting tougher.

“We have huge strength in depth now in kayaking,” says Clarke. “But to be able to represent the country again would be an amazing experience.”

Clarke’s attitude to competition can be simply summed up as the more the merrier. It is not only his own future he is excited about but the sport.

GB are returning from France with four canoe slalom medals, including the silver won last week by his fellow Stafford and Stone member, Adam Burgess.

It is kayak cross, meanwhile, with its chaotic racing and delightful lack of rules, which Clarke believes can open up canoe slalom to a new audience.

“We have really hit the mainstream now, with kayak cross,” he said. “I think it has been a huge hit with people back home who have never seen the sport before and have got hooked. “The hope is we can get more bums in boats and get our sport out to the wider masses. I know I am biased but I think it is the best sport in the world and hopefully we can see more people get involved.

“For me, the Olympics is about showcasing the sport. I have won world titles, European titles.

“The Games is more about getting the sport out to the mainstream. I am very proud to represent the Midlands and Staffordshire but also take the sport to new audiences.

“I really hope we get more people into the sport. We don’t get much of the limelight. We had huge success last year with a home world championship.

“But it is not on the TV all the time and the Games is the moment you can really spark the enthusiasm of young people.

“Hopefully we have done that. I think we have done the nation proud with four medals across the disciplines, which is absolutely fantastic.”