Max Salminen
Max Salminen is a Swedish competitive sailor and the 2012 Olympic champion in the Star class together with Fredrik Lööf.
Biography
Salminen was born in Lund, Sweden, on 22 September 1988, and started sailing in Segelsällskapet Pinhättan in Barsebäckshamn. For upper secondary school, he attended Katedralskolan in Lund. In 2010, Salminen joined Fredrik Lööf for an Olympic campaign in the Star class. Before the 2012 Summer Olympics, he relocated to Lake Garda in Italy to practice with Lööf. At the time, Salminen represented the Royal Swedish Yacht Club.The duo competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, winning the Star event. The Swedish duo had secured a medal before the medal race but were sitting twelve points, or six places in the double-scoring race, behind Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson of Great Britain, but by winning the race while Great Britain only finished eighth after having lost their fifth place in the race over the last leg.
After the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Star left the Olympic programme, Lööf engaged in Artemis Racing and the America's Cup, and Salminen switched to the Finn dinghy. Representing the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club, he was selected to represent Sweden in the men's Finn event at the Rio Olympics, where he finished in sixth place. Salminen then won the 2017 Finn Gold Cup in Balatonföldvár, Hungary, and was crowned World champion ahead of Jonathan Lobert of France och Nicholas Heiner of the Netherlands.
He qualified to represent Sweden at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men's Finn. Salminen was chosen as the Swedish flag bearer at the opening ceremony together with equestrian Sara Algotsson Ostholt. Salminen finished ninth in the event which marked the end of the Olympic career for the Finn dinghy.