“Standing on the top of the podium would be like standing on top of the world and your name would be written down in history books.“

Austria’s para-canoe sensation Markus Swoboda may have won the last five World Championships but he believes 2015 is possibly the most important of his career with just one year to go until the sport’s debut at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Swoboda, 25, is Austria’s only para-canoeist competing at present and has dominated the kayak: K1-TA class since 2010. He cannot wait for competition to begin this year and hopes further success can inspire others to take up the sport.

“I’m looking forward to every para-canoe competition this year because it calms my nerves! It tells me exactly where I stand compared to the others and what mistakes I might make during the races, this helps me to improve,” he said.

Along with para-triathlon, para-canoe will make its first appearance next year at South America’s first Paralympic Games and Swoboda is already imagining the prospect of competing there.

“I believe that Rio 2016 is the goal of every handicapped and non-handicapped sportsman competing in an Olympic or Paralympic discipline.

“Sure I’m thinking about that, especially this year because the qualifying races are held. Winning would be one of the greatest achievements in my life.

“Standing on the top of the podium would be like standing on top of the world and your name would be written down in history books.

“But that said, the bigger focus is to qualify this year so I can solely concentrate on Rio 2016 after the World Championships.”

This year’s World Championships in Milan, Italy, between 19-23 August, are a major part of qualification for Rio 2016.

“I would be really happy to paddle under 40 seconds over 200m. I believe if the conditions are good I can do it. Fernando [Rufino de Paulo (BRA)] and I competed last year in Moscow twice and it was always really close.

“I would be happy if we have a really close and exciting race, especially if I’m the first that crosses the finish-line!”

Back to a full training regime in September 2014, Swoboda has had a busy winter. In November he trained at Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, with the Norwegian national team, in an effort to be in great shape for the first major event of the year, May’s European Championships in the Czech Republic.

“I’ve never been to Florida for training before and I really enjoyed the experience. It’s a great place to train and with a lot of good teams there in winter. I hope the Norwegians let me join them next year again.

“Since I got back to Austria I haven’t been in a boat, but I train most of the time on a kayak ergometer, a lot of swimming and gym. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough snow to do proper cross-country skiing at the weekends.

I’m really looking forward to be outside again.

“In February I will go to Port Edward, South Africa with the Austrian kayak team. This will be the first time I will be back in a boat again.”

You can follow Markus’ journey to Rio 2016 on Facebook.