Credit : Sven Martin
#11. Martin Soderstrom: The highs and lows of professional action sports
Martin Soderstrom burst onto the dirt jump and slopestyle mountain bike scene with early success. He experienced all the high and lows with big wins and big injuries. The friendly Swede struggled personally with the pressure of the sport and expectations on him. He speaks out about these challenges and deciding to walk away from the competitive side of the sport.
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I think skateboarding has the benefit of a huge breadth of smaller brands to sponsor different types of skating that aren’t competition based. The overall perception is that we see lots of skaters who are sponsored but aren’t in SLS like nyjah or something, but most of these smaller sponsors don’t have huge rosters and training facilities and everything that something like redbull or monster provides. I can’t help but feel like the big sponsors like red bull are there to host the top competitive athletes, though.
I do see that red bull retains a lot of athletes that no longer compete but were absolutely legendary during their competitive years and have very decorated records. In that regard, semenuk will likely always be taken care of by redbull because he’s a household name, always providing exposure.
I think over on that side of the pond, Martin does similar things influencing other people to ride and is good brand recognition over there, albeit not on the same caliber as Brandon.
But then there’s other athletes that sort of feel they miss the mark. And I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way. Carson storch was rising in slope style when he was picked up by redbull but almost immediately stopped competing in slope. That’s a weird one and I’ve always been interested in what red bull thinks about that.
That being said, easily one of the most down the earth, funny, and kind people I have spent time with. There was no arrogance or conceded attitude. He was in good spirits and never stopped laughing or looking for ways to make us laugh.
I’m pumped he’s doing good. He’s a true ambassador of the sport and needs to be around. Hope you are well Martin!
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