Aspiring junior athletes interview Olympic medalist Max Maeder

Young, aspiring athletes asked Max about everything from his pre-competition routine to moving abroad without parents.

“When there's strong winds and you attach a kite to a little kid, do you know what happens?” Max Maeder asks the crowd, “They fly away! But you must fall back to earth eventually, and that part's not so fun.”

Fresh off securing a bronze medal for kitefoiling at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and less than a fortnight before he sets off for his next international competition, eighteen-year-old Max was invited to share his story with future Olympic hopefuls at the National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI).

In addition to young sailors and other water sports athletes, budding wrestlers, pentathletes, and martial artists also trickled into the after-school session dressed in crisp uniforms and PE kit.

The children’s curiosity about what it takes to compete at the highest levels is palpable: but so is their shyness in front of the newly minted Olympic medalist.

Seated on a football-shaped beanbag chair, Max's mentorship session felt more like a casual hangout between friends.

“No questions?” Max asks invitingly, “not even about the incredible muffins they had at the Olympic Village?”

An unlikely start

Although he now has multiple world championship titles and an Olympic medal under his belt, Max’s sailing career was far from certain.

“I didn’t like it at all in the beginning, the whole process of preparing and putting gear on,” he recalls, “my first race [when he was only ten] went so badly I didn't finish the course.”

Instead of letting him throw in the towel, Max’s father told him to focus on making small, gradual improvements. Like many Singaporean children, Max made a study of sailing rules and techniques and by his next race, “I managed to not be dead last.”

Max was encouraged by the progress he made by putting in the time, and says his childlike optimism buffered any disappointment.

If marathon autographing were an Olympic event, Max would be well on his way to another medal.

“I didn't know I sucked bad at the time,” he says, “for me it wasn't about getting somewhere in particular or attaining a certain result. Every time I stepped out of my comfort zone, I just grew.”

It’s a comforting sentiment for the children, several of whom are the same age Max was when he first took to the water.

“When did you feel like you were finally a pro?” a tiny voice asks.

“I don’t know if there was an exact moment,” Max replies, “it happened over a long time. I was tricked into it — and I also tricked myself!”

Curry rice, screen time, and everything in-between

As with most interactions involving kids, the conversation pinballs from topic to topic.

Max’s scariest experience to date? Having his mast snap while sailing at 60 kilometres an hour. “That’s faster than Usain Bolt runs,” he says. He slammed into the water and hit his funny bone hard, losing sensation in his arm for a solid three minutes.

“Do you feel more Singaporean or Swiss?” In typical Singaporean fashion, Max answers with a food metaphor.

“If you had to pick between eating chicken curry rice or cheese fondue for the rest of your life, which would you choose?” he asks the group, “I choose curry rice, so sue me!”

“How do you take exams if you’re homeschooled?”

“I don’t, really.”

Envious murmurs fill the room, and the parents giggle in sympathy with their kids. “How much screen time do you have in a day?” one mother asks while eyeing their child.

“About six or seven hours,” Max replies, before moving quickly to declare filial piety, “but at least an hour or two of that is calling my parents: my dad talks a lot.”

“It’s like blah, blah, blah nonstop,” he jokes, “I think it’s a good thing, because he talks a lot I feel comfortable sharing with him too.”

A major theme of the session was the role mental resilience plays in both high-stakes competitive events as well as off-season.

In it to win it

Max’s ability to balance teenaged cheek with wisdom draws appreciative comments from the grownups in attendance.

It’s a likely effect of competing in a sport that skews older.

“I always try to focus on what is within my control and what I can change,” he says of racing against mature adults, “my age is not something I can change, so I don’t let any self-doubt over it creep in.”

In a high-pressure athletic career, mental resilience matters just as much as physical power. Max takes pains to stress to his juniors that winning isn’t and shouldn’t be everything.

“But there's gold medalist, silver, bronze…,” he imitates a runner crossing the finish line, and leans back slightly for each subsequent runner, “… and then, ‘never heard of them’. That difference is minuscule.”

"He's so mature and responsible," remarked one parent of Max's responses to the group's wide-ranging questions.

At a certain level of competition, reaching the top becomes all about mindset. “Once you win something, you can think there's only downhill to go,” Max says, “but what's more important is how well you can maintain yourself over the long term.”

Onward and upward

Max’s message of steely determination will stand any young athlete in good stead, and it will certainly fuel him towards his next Olympics, by which time he will no longer be a child at 22.

For now however, he remains the teen hero you can’t help but root for: a good kid who loves his sport almost as much as he loves his family.

Asked about his immediate reaction to medaling, he replies: “I hugged my mum for a long time. The more you hug your mum, the better you process your emotions.”

As the session draws to a close, the kids circle Max for a group photo.“Everybody say muffins!”In 2023, NYSI Performance Pathways Manager and former Olympic sailor Xu Yuan Zhen was tasked with assisting Max in the planning and logistics requirements for his Olympics bid. Read all about his story here.