Five things about Singapore’s Olympic gold medal hopeful, kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder
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Singapore kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder is gunning for glory at the Olympic Games.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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SINGAPORE – It has been eight years since a Singaporean last tasted glory at the Olympics in 2016, when swimmer Joseph Schooling clinched the Republic’s first gold medal at the quadrennial Games.
Now, kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder is in with a shot of emulating Schooling’s feat and becoming Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist at the age of 17. Who is this teenager taking the sport by storm?
1. Serial winner
Winning is something Maximilian has been doing from a young age. The teenager emerged victorious at his first world youth championship in 2021, when he was just 14.
He continued his dominance at the senior level, becoming the youngest world champion of an Olympic sailing class after winning in 2023, before retaining his title a year later. a gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games
2. Nomadic childhood
Maximilian’s father, Valentin, is Swiss and his mother, Teng Hwee Keng is from Singapore. He spent the majority of his childhood in Switzerland, Singapore and the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, where his parents built the Wakatobi Dive Resort.
He is the oldest of three boys, with younger brother Karl also a competitive kitefoiler. The 15-year-old came in 18th in the second-tier silver flight category
3. Love affair with sport starts early
Maximilian’s competitiveness was evident when he started his sporting pursuits. Aged just four, he first began participating in ski races. His father revealed in an earlier interview
Valentin introduced him to kiteboarding when he was six years old, before he switched to kitefoiling four years later. An 11-year-old Maximilian had big goals then, declaring that he wanted to become a world champion, a dream he ultimately fulfilled.
4. Independent streak
Owing to his competition schedule, Maximilian does not spend much time in Singapore. He spends part of each year training in Croatia, where his training partner and coach are from. He also trains in Egypt, Italy, Brazil, China, France and Spain.
As a result of his time spent overseas, he has learnt to be independent and is mature beyond his years.
5. He loves... curry puffs
Like many Singaporeans, Maximilian loves his food and one of his favourite local dishes is chicken rice. But if he had to pick his absolute favourite, it would definitely be curry puffs. He revealed that in 2020, he learnt how to make the pastry
He can devour 10 to 12 curry puffs over two days and is very particular about how they are made. The curry puff must be bigger than average, overstuffed with a spicy filling of curry and soft potatoes, and preferably homemade.
