2024 ST Athlete of the Year nominee: Maximilian Maeder

Q: How has your love for kitefoiling evolved?

It begun as a sporting thrill or a feeling of going out and being able to fly across the water and having fun that way because it’s the thrill of being able to stand on the foil. But over time that changed – the more and more time you spend on the foil, you get used to the feeling.

Not to say that it’s not fun, but why the sport itself is so great or why I love it changed to that I could compete, that I could genuinely improve and train and fight in something that I was competent in and compare myself to others.

That very quickly changed to something that remained for a much longer time – how you can connect through sport, how you can bring value through sport as more people supported me, as more people gave up their resources and time to help me.

That shifted my perspective on not doing it for myself any more and actually doing it for others and that’s a big paradigm shift... I get to let others experience and others can live vicariously or enjoy my journey and bring whatever emotion to them, a feeling to them, a positive impact on them.

Q: Describe 2024 in one word.

I would say rich or dense, words like that. A lot changed for me from 2023 to 2024, from my view of athleticism to the obligations to sponsors, or the feeling of responsibility to continue to perform well, all the way to the experiences that I had and how 2024 felt like two years.

It was genuinely a lot. That’s why I would use these words because there was just so much that happened for me.

Q: What was your biggest takeaway from the Olympics?

It was what happened afterwards. It was the impact that just my competing out on the water could have. It wasn’t the racing itself – as much as that was a big thing to me and was very important for the experiences that I had at the Games.

What I did out of the water could connect or resonate with people that much – that was most definitely surprising.

Q: What was your standout moment in 2024? 

Coming back from the finals of the Games, I was absorbed in my own world and how I came back to so much celebration, cheer and joy, it ripped me out of my little world and put into perspective for me how many people were watching and how much was behind me just competing.

That opened my perspective and it was a pretty big moment for me – I didn’t realise it because I was so focused on competing, I didn’t see that was happening.

Q: You are a keen chess player – who would you like to play a game with?

I would like to play chess with my father. I haven’t played with him in a long time, just to see how I stand against him. I really enjoy playing with my family, with my mum and with Karl, my younger brother, and VJ, my youngest brother.

It was a long time ago, especially so with my father and he taught me chess and just like a lot of other kids, you just learn chess and you don’t play it ever again. But for me, at some point in 2021, I found the online version and got sucked into it. It would be fun to play with my father again and this time, unlike last time, be the one to win the game instead of him all the time.

Achievements in 2024: