About Eirik Verås Larsen
Eirik Verås Larsen (born 26 March 1976 in Flekkefjord) is a Norwegian sprint kayaker who has competed internationally since the early 1990s. He has participated in three Summer Olympics, and has won a complete set of medals (gold: 2004 K-1 1000 m and 2012 K-1 1000 m, silver: 2008 K-1 1000 m, bronze: 2004 K-2 1000 m). Eirik Verås Larsen's definitive international breakthrough came when he and his companion Nils Olav Fjeldheim won the European Championship K2-1000 gold medal in 2000. == Early career == Verås Larsen started kayaking at the age of 10 in Flekkefjord, a small town at the south west coast with 8000 inhabitants. Flekkefjord Kayak Club had a history of producing world champions – such as his coach Olaf Søyland who won gold medals in K4-10 000m in 1975 and in the K2-1000m in 1979. As a young competitive athlete at the national level, Verås Larsen was never the top-ranked contender. However, he was known as being dedicated, hard working, and he was feared by many for his endurance capacity. By the end of his teenage years, his hard work started to pay off. At just 17-year-old, he surprised many by winning the bronze medal in the 1993 Nordic Marathon Junior Championship in Sweden. In 1995, Verås Larsen moved to Oslo to train alongside Norway's best paddlers.
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