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.