(2014 ARCHIVED) Max Karlsson - Sweden
MAX KARLSSON (Sweden) - Nominee for 'Sports Junior of the Year'
- Born: 1996, sport: canoe freestyle (C1, K1, squirt), extreme (kayak 8-ball, boater-x), represents: Sweden. In 2014:
- Overall World Cup Champion in K1M junior freestyle: Gold (Millau, FRA), Gold (Salt, SPA), Gold (Sort, ESP)
- Overall World Cup Champion in Men’s squirt: Silver (Millau, FRA), Gold (Salt, SPA), Gold (Sort, ESP)
- Most decorated athlete at 2014 World Cup with 5 golds and 1 silver
- European champion in K1M junior freestyle
- European silver medalist in Men’s squirt. What makes Max’s accomplishment this season even more impressive is that squirt does not have a junior division
- Finalist in K1M freestyle pro-division at Lyons Outdoor Games (3rd place) and GoPro Mountain Games (5th place), where Max defeated 4 former world medalists (Nick Troutman, EJ, Stephen Wright, and Tomasz Czaplicki)
- Went undefeated in 2014 in K1M junior freestyle events
17-year old Max 'Seaweed' Karlsson surprised the freestyle world in style by winning 2 gold medals on the same day at the ICF World Cup in Sort in 2014.
In three years, Max's improvement in Junior K1 Men has been progressively solid; he has gone from being 25th at the 2011 Freestyle World Cup to 7th overall in 2012 to owning the podium in 2014.
Residing in Colorado, Max started paddling aged 9. Making the decision a few year's later to do his schooling online, he was able to travel and kayak year-long – his motivation and dedication to his training are tribute to his double golds at this year's World Cup.
He was successful enough to enter the Swedish Canoe Federation's Junior Academy in Nyköping for the 2012/13 academic year.
Max was 2nd in Kayak 8-ball at the 2012 Teva Mountain Games and 2012 Swedish Junior National Champion in freestyle and boater-x.
Activities and achievements off the water:
- Runs instructional kayak training videos
- Teaches children to kayak
- Runs kayak clinics, for example 'Dagger Jitsu with Max'
This is a 2014 archived nominee. For the 2015 nominees click on the button below.
