Vitals & career path
- Hometown
- Grant, MN
- Born
- 2004
- Junior clubs
- Endurance United
- High school
- Mahtomedi High School (2022)
- College
- College of St. Scholastica
Fun fact
At his first race his guide did not show up, so his dad ran alongside the course in moon boots to guide him.
About Max
Max Nelson grew up in Grant, Minnesota, and started skiing at age seven. He races in the visually impaired class with his guide, Gus Schatzlein. As a junior at Mahtomedi High School in 2021, he won the Metro East Conference individual title, the first visually impaired Nordic skier to win an individual conference title in Minnesota. A year later, at 17, he was the youngest member of the U.S. Paralympic Nordic team in Beijing, where he helped the open relay to ninth. He returned to the Paralympics in 2026 in Milano Cortina, finishing 13th in the 10K classic. He races for Endurance United and attends the College of St. Scholastica.