HONORING JEWS IN SPORTS

CLASS OF 2025 UNVEILED

Back To All

Sport: Canoeing
Inducted: 2005
Country: USA
Born: September 26, 1969,

DESCRIPTION:

Joe Jacobi won a gold medal in the 400-meter Canadian Slalom (C-2) Pairs (w/Scott Strausbaugh) at the 1992 Olympic Games. The Barcelona champions were the first-ever Americans to win a gold medal in whitewater canoeing.

Jacobi experienced a ‘career year’ in 1992. In addition to their Olympic championship, he and Strausbaugh captured their fifth consecutive U.S. title in the C-2 (two-man) National Championships, and were ranked 5th overall in the International Whitewater series.

Leading up to their Olympic gold medal victory, Jacobi and Strausbaugh finished first in the C-2 Slalom event at the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival. In 1991, they were U.S. National C-2 champions. That same year, Jacobi won the C-2 Mixed National title, and finished second in the C-1 International Whitewater series overall ranking.

Following the 1992 Olympics, Jacobi enjoyed considerable success paddling both C-1 and C-2 events through 1995. Thereafter, he devoted his attention to C-1 whitewater almost exclusively, but fell short of qualifying for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. In 2002, he began a new C-2 partnership with Matt Taylor––in time to make a run to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

A dozen years after his gold medal victory in Barcelona, Jacobi (and Taylor) won the 2003 U.S. National C-2 Slalom championship, and were fourth at the 2003 World Championships in Augsburg, Germany. The pair took third place at the U.S. C-2 Olympic time trials and qualified for the 2004 Games. They finished ninth in the finals in Athens.

Jacobi is co-author of the book, The Olympic Dream and Spirit.

Privacy Settings
We use cookies to enhance your experience while using our website. If you are using our Services via a browser you can restrict, block or remove cookies through your web browser settings. We also use content and scripts from third parties that may use tracking technologies. You can selectively provide your consent below to allow such third party embeds. For complete information about the cookies we use, data we collect and how we process them, please check our Privacy Policy
Youtube
Consent to display content from - Youtube
Vimeo
Consent to display content from - Vimeo
Google Maps
Consent to display content from - Google
Spotify
Consent to display content from - Spotify
Sound Cloud
Consent to display content from - Sound

info@jewishsportshof.org

info@jewishsportshof.org