Andrey Kraytor is an Olympic athlete who competed in sprint canoe at the 2016 Games and now coaches the Chinese national team. I had the pleasure of chatting with Andrey about the realities of being an Olympian, the incredible subtleties of paddling a sprint canoe and what it’s like to coach Chinese champions (spoiler alert: it’s a lot of pressure).

We also get to watch a whole bunch of canoe races, of which I’m becoming a big fan 🤨

Andrey was in the final of the C1-200m at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and these days lives in China where he’s the technique coach for the women’s national team. He’s also a total badass on a SUP even though he’s only been paddling on his feet for 2 or 3 years — he almost took the gold medal off Connor Baxter at the ICF Worlds last year in the fastest sprint race our sport has ever seen. Follow @kraytor_andrey on Insta for more

Plus Andrey is a member here on Club SUP Racer 🤘 If you’re enjoying Paddlecast and want to help ensure the creative work of SUP Racer continues, I invite you to join ‘Club SUP Racer‘ and pledge your support on Patreon.

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UPDATE: There was a copyright claim on YouTube because we showed footage from the Olympics. I had to blur-out that section. So when you reach the 45-minute mark of the show click here to watch the original video of Andrey’s 2016 Olympic final.

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