POSITIVITY LIFTS MAEDER

Kitefoiler surprised by superb support after receiving zero negative messages

- Kimberly Kwek

Barely a minute into this interview, Singaporean kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder takes out his phone and opens his Instagram inbox.

In the past 24 hours since he clinched bronze at the Paris Olympics, the teenager has received a barrage of encouraging messages and he is trying to give reporters a sense of the overwhelming support he has encountered.

He scrolls through his inbox for a while, but manages to go through only about a quarter of the messages before he has to stop to make his point.

He said: "The thing that does stand out to me is that I have not been able to spot a single, even mildly negative message, even remotely close to something that would have a notion of being negative. It was all beaming with happiness, joy, pride and celebration." The 17-year-old, who is the youngest Olympic medallist from Singapore, is surprised by the positive reception.

Just the day before on Aug 9, he was sobbing after claiming bronze.

It was a significant achievement he is just the sixth Singaporean to stand on an Olympic podium - but the two-time world champion had expected more of himself.