Our Athlete of the week needs little introduction to the Kayaking world : Today we would like to introduce Danish Paddler, World Champion and Olympic Medalist Rene Holten Poulsen. NAME: René Holten Poulsen AGE: 26 COUNTRY: Denmark TRAINING LOCATION: Copenhagen, Florida, Portugal, Italy…the world pretty much PROFESSION AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: Carpenter (3,5 year education in denmark) YEARS PADDLING: 13 PADDLING DISTANCE AND SPECIALIZATION: K1 1000m, but fairly good at K2 and K4 as well. COACH: Zoltan Bako, senior. SPONSORS: Red Bull, Primatag, Lolland Kommune (my home city), Team Denmark, J.A. (my employer…..when I work), Playground (GoPro handler Denmark), 1)WHAT DISTANCES DO YOU SPECIALIZE IN AND WHY? 1000m. I was always fairly good at long stuff, even marathon. I was always biking to school and we ran both 800metres and 10k’s in school for gym-classes.(our teacher wasn’t so creative). When I started paddling I was small, but my conditioning made me very good on our longer sprint distances races in Denmark. (we do 2500m when we are U14 and U16, 5k as u18). And when I started getting stronger and bigger, I still had my conditioning. So as a junior I found out that going fast for a 1000m was something I was good at. 2)YOU ARE A REDBULL SPONSORED ATHLETE THAT MUST BE AWESOME, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PERKS? Well In my humble opinion they are the greatest sponsor you can have, cuz ofcourse they do it because eventually they wanna make money of ‘your’ publicity, however they don’t do anything half way. So they make sure you have everything you need, they even use there network to get your more sponsors if needed. Consider it a family. Oh yes, and you get to go to concerts with cool artists like Awolnation. 3)DURING YOUR OFF /BASE SEASON DO YOU INCLUDE ANY VARIETY IN YOUR TRAINING? In off season I’m more focused on the basic logically enough. The off season is where you build the foundation for the upcoming season, and even for when you get older. Money in the bank you might call it. The big difference would also be that, we can’t paddle all year around like in SA. So we run, swim, bike and do a lot of gym. A coach I once had, said that to become top kayaker in the world, you had be good at all of those things. Basic physical capacity. 4)YOU HAVE TRAVELED TO MANY COUNTRIES FOR TRAINING AND RACING, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COUNTRY? I really enjoy nothern Italy, the scenari is unreal. 5)DO YOU HAVE ANY TRAINING TIPS YOU CAN SHARE WITH US? Train hard and smart. Don’t be scared of leaving your kayak for a month or two. Kayaking is a strange sport, if you wanna be a sprint paddler. It requires anormous endurance, and weightlifter strength. Most 500 and 1000m paddlers that make top 5 in the world, can make top 10 at marathon worlds without further training. However the problem remains that in a kayak it’s hard to train your Vo2, there for running is good. And when paddling you practically destroy what you did in the gym. So, sometimes it’s not a bad idea to leave the water. 6)WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT? World Champion K1 500m 2014. Olympic Silver K2 1000m 2008. Double European Champ 2013, K1 1000 and 500m. 7)WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE UPCOMING SEASON? World Champs 2015 is the goal. 8)ZOLTAN BAKO JUNIOR USED TO COACH THE SA MENS K4, WE BELIEVE ZOLTAN BAKO SENIOR IS YOUR COACH, DO YOU STICK TO THE TYPICAL HUNGARIAN TRAINING PROGRAM AND HOW HAS IT BENEFITED YOU? I think for sure I benefit from his training, not sure I would call it a classic hungarian training program though. Technique and endurance are their main pointers. Endurance being both on the water, in the gym and all other training. Make sure to Follow Rene on the following social media, He is always a top contender and dont be shy to put your money on him, he wont disappoint! renepoulsen (all in danish) twitter is: @reneholten88 instagram is: @reneholten88 Facebook page : facebook/Rene.Holten
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 14:36:48 +0000
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