Kaj Johnson

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Kaj Johnson Luge
Kaj Johnson at the EM 2010
Kaj Johnson at the EM 2010
nation CanadaCanada Canada
birthday September 9, 1984
place of birth Edmonton
size 183 cm
Weight 70 kg
job police officer
Career
discipline Single seater, double seater
National squad since 2003
status active
Placements in the Natural Track Luge World Cup
 Debut in the World Cup January 26, 2003
 Overall World Cup ES 15th ( 2008/2009 )
 Overall World Cup DS 11. (2008/2009)
last change: March 5, 2012

Kaj Johnson (born September 9, 1984 in Edmonton , Alberta ) is a Canadian natural track toboggan runner who is one of the most internationally successful in his country in both single and double seaters. With two tenth places in World Cup races and an eleventh place in the 2007 World Cup , he achieved the best results so far for a Canadian in a single-seater in these competitions. He also formed the first Canadian two-seater pair to participate in a world championship with Greg Jones in 2009 . Johnson lives in Rankin Inlet on Hudson Bay and is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police .

Career

At the beginning of his international career, Kaj Johnson only started in the single-seater. He took part in the Junior World Championships in 2002 and 2004 and achieved 17th place as the best result at the 2004 Junior World Championships in Kindberg . In the 2002/2003 season he competed in his first two World Cup races , in which a 24th place in Hüttau - his first World Cup race - was the best result. In the 2003/2004 season he also took part in two World Cup races and this time he finished 18th in Grande Prairie , in the first ever World Cup race that took place in his home country Canada, for the first time among the fastest 20. Also in the next winter , in the he - like all other Canadians - took part in three World Cup races, was an 18th place, this time in Latzfons , his best result. Since 2004, Johnson has also competed in international championships, i.e. world championships and European championships , in which non-Europeans can also participate. With 27th place at the 2004 European Championships in Hüttau and 30th place at the 2005 World Championships in Latsch , he was able to place himself in the lower midfield. At the 2005 World Cup he started together with Melissa Jones as well as Galabin Bozew and Slatomir Sdrawkow as a Canadian- Bulgarian team in the team competition, but only achieved tenth and last place.

In the 2005/2006 season Johnson drove in the four World Cup races in which he took part, three times among the fastest 20. His best result was a 17th place in Olang . In his two home races in Grande Prairie, he was 18 each. In the same winter, he took part with Greg Jones for the first time in a World Cup race in the doubles. In Olang, however, they only came in 14th and last place, a long way behind, and for the time being this was his only start in the doubles. In the 2006/2007 season , all Canadian natural track tobogganists only took part in a single World Cup race on January 21, 2007 in Löngiarü . Johnson came in 25th as the best of the three Canadians. Four weeks after this race, the 2007 World Championship took place in Grande Prairie . It was the first World Cup in Canada and also the first outside of Europe. The Canadian natural track tobogganers hoped for and achieved good placements after long training on the World Cup course. Kaj Johnson, who was in seventh place after the first run, finally achieved eleventh place after three rounds and thus the best World Championship result ever achieved by a Canadian in the men's singles. His team-mate John Gibson also stayed ahead of the old record with 16th place, namely the 21st places of Wolfgang Schröttner in 1992 and Corey Pusey in 2003 and 2005 .

Johnson has been competing in all World Cup races since winter 2007/2008, which significantly improved his placements in the overall World Cup and since then has always been among the top 20 in the final ranking. In the 2007/2008 season , he was among the fastest 20 in all six World Cup races, but was never better than 17th and thus achieved 18th place in the overall World Cup. Also in the 2008/2009 season he was never worse than 20th and was among the top 15 of a World Cup race for the first time with two 13th places in Unterammergau and at the finals in Nowouralsk . In the overall World Cup he reached 15th place and at the same time his best overall result to date. Together with Greg Jones, he also took part in four World Cup races in the doubles, but was never better than the penultimate. At the beginning of the 2009/2010 season , Johnson drove his two tenth places in Nowouralsk as the first Canadian in a single-seater ever to be among the top ten in a World Cup race. In the further course of the season he finished three times in the top 15, but because like all Canadians he did not take part in the season finale in Garmisch-Partenkirchen , he only came in 16th in the overall World Cup, but was nevertheless the best Canadian in the overall standings for the fourth time in a row. At the European Championships in Olang in 2008 and in St. Sebastian in 2010 , in which Johnson was the only Canadian to participate, he reached 14th place on both occasions. At the 2009 World Championships in Moos in Passeier , however, he only came in 25th in the single-seater. Together with Greg Jones in the two-seater and the single-seater John Gibson and Irma Karišik , who started for Bosnia and Herzegovina , he also took part in the team competition, where the team finished ninth out of ten teams. With Greg Jones he started as the first Canadian doubles ever in the doubles competition at a world championship. They took eleventh place out of 13 doubles.

In the 2010/2011 season Johnson - like all Canadians - only took part in the fourth World Cup race, which he finished as the best of the three Canadians in 13th position. At the 2011 World Cup in Umhausen , which took place a week later , he was again the best in his country and finished 15th in the single-seater. In the 2011/2012 season Johnson competed in three of the six World Cup races, with a 13th place in Deutschnofen being his best result.

successes

World championships

European championships

Junior World Championships

World cup

  • Three times among the top 20 in the overall single-seater World Cup
  • Twice among the top 20 in the overall double-seater World Cup
  • 2 top 10 results in single-seater World Cup races
  • 3 top 10 results in two-seater World Cup races

Web links

Commons : Kaj Johnson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 18th FIL World Championships Umhausen (AUT) . International Luge Federation , January 26, 2011, accessed on January 28, 2011
  2. ^ The world came together in Grande Prairie for the 2007 Natural Luge World Championships. In: Velocity . Newsletter of the Canadian Luge Association, March 2007, p. 1 (PDF, 734 kB, English)
  3. ↑ Naturally gifted at luge. In: Velocity . Newsletter of the Canadian Luge Association, September 2007, p. 1 (PDF, 300 kB, English)
  4. ↑ Kaj Johnson: Christmas Greetings from Italy! lugenews.blogspot.com, December 23, 2009, accessed July 28, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Kaj
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian natural track toboggan runner
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Edmonton , Alberta, Canada