August 6, 2012
by Christopher Parker (@wheresbossman)

SUP Athlete Krisztina Zur Racing At The Olympics


UPDATE: It’s GOLD for Krisztina Zur!

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Stand Up Paddle racer Krisztina Fazekas Zur is competing at the London Olympics this week. The Hungarian (who spends much of the year in California) is representing her home nation in the Women’s K-4 500m event.

In this morning’s heats, K-Zur helped her team to victory, meaning they get to skip the semis and go straight into Wednesday’s final.

Hungary is one of the favourites for the gold; their women’s team has won silver at the past two Olympic Games and also took gold at the World Championships last year. The medal race will be at 10:44am Wednesday British Time (2:44am Pacific Time…). You can follow the action on the official Olympics site.

Apart from being a 4x Kayak World Champion, Zur is also a very active and successful SUP racer. She’s part of the super elite Team Quickblade and earlier this year won string of races.

Regardless of whether or not Stand Up Paddle racing ever reaches the Olympics itself, the sport already has a strong association with the Games. Apart from Fazekas, well-known SUP racer Jim Terrell – founder of Quickblade Paddles and all round Mad Scientist – has competed at four Olympics in the C-1 and C-2 Sprint Canoeing, while Canadian Stand Up Paddler Larry Cain won C-1 Gold in 1988.