Greete Poderat Young Athlete Scholarship 2022 won by Kaimar Vagul

Southwestern Advantage Foundation’s aim is to contribute to young people’s entrepreneurship education and experience in the countries where the Southwestern Advantage student program takes place. Since 2020 we are giving out our annual Greete Poderat Young Athlete Scholarship to support ambitious young athletes like Greete Poderat was. Greete passed away in 2019 when she was just 22 years old.

Although Greete’s mountain skiing career ended after an injury she was a super active young person participating for years in the Southwestern Advantage student program, investing and doing recreational sports.

The idea of our annual scholarship is to encourage and support youth sports and career options in competitive sports. That’s why we support one young athlete with 1200 euros. Southwestern Advantage Foundation also wants to help young people’s financial awareness: in addition to monetary support, 22-time Estonian champion Gerda Rand is offering the winner her personal mentorship. Gerda is an experienced investor and she has coached competitive athletes before since she was competing at a high level in cycling for 8 years.

It was difficult to choose the winner of the scholarship because again this year there were many candidates worthy of recognition, and many athletes applied for the second year in a row. We want to increase the amount of the scholarship in the coming years because we see that there is a great need for it.

The applicants needed to send a motivational letter, a support letter from their coach, a report card from school, and a list of competitive achievements and recent training camps. The winner was selected by a jury whose members were Greete’s mom, brother, and friends from Southwestern Advantage program.

The winner is Kaimar Vagul, a 15-year-old ski jumper studying at Mittelschule Oberstdorf in Southern Germany.

Kaimar has been involved in ski jumping from a very young age, following the example of his father Virgo Vagul. Kaimar has achieved good results in the youth and junior age groups and has consistently moved toward his dreams. Already at the age of four, the young athlete moved to Finland with his family so that he could continue ski jumping at a better level. In the summer of 2021, he and his family moved to Germany, where Kaimar went to the Oberstdorf Sports School, which was one of his great dreams as a ski jumper and one of the best schools in the world in terms of ski jumping.

Kaimar has represented Estonia in several international competitions at the youth level. In 2021 Kaimar participated in the Nordic Youth Championships, where he won fourth place, it is worth mentioning that Kaimar competed in this competition with athletes who were 3 years older than him. The goal for next season is to compete successfully at the World Youth Championships in Canada. The goal for 2024 is the Youth Olympic Games in South Korea.

Until now, Kaimar’s parents and sister have largely taken care of his continuous improvement in sports and the associated costs, finding opportunities to progress and develop on their own. Training and living costs in Germany are expensive. State-of-the-art equipment, medical and physical tests and examinations, physiotherapy, and training camps also play an important in developing and achieving good results. All of the above is necessary for becoming a top athlete.

The Secretary-General of the Estonian Ski Association Tõnu Seil describes Kaimar as follows: “He is an athlete who is goal-oriented, open to challenges and development. Kaimar is determined by his personal qualities and results-oriented despite his young age.”

Congratulations, wishing you a continuous development and long flights on the jumping hill!

“Wake up with determination, go to sleep with satisfaction”