BridgeScanner about Christina Lund MadsenChristina Lund Madsen🎤Blitz-interview: 13 questions from Bridgescanner (BS) to a prominent bridge person Christina Lund Madsen (CLM):BS: How many years have you been playing bridge?
CLM:20 years – since my first junior camp in 2001. It changed my life. I learned a bit from my parents as a young teenager, but I am not sure that counts as bridge😉
BS: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
CLM:As a bridge player or as a person? Bridge first: Strength is I am fearless and have a strong table feeling. Weakness is low self confidence and focus fall outs. As a person: Strength is my optimistic fighting nature. Though life tries to knock me out, I always get back on my feet and hit life back. Weakness: I care way too much about what other people think of me and I am very unhappy when someone does not like me.
BS: Tell about an accomplishment you are most proud of?
CLM: A bridge achievement? Probably winning the European Mixed teams 4-handed in 2015 with Ton Bakkeren as partner (Meike Wortel and Jacco Hop as teammates). Ton and I had never played before, only practiced a bit online, and after the event he also needed a few weeks of restitution😉I won the euro mixed again in 2019, but that was mostly because of my excellent teammates😉But honestly I wish I could say winning the Danish mixed pairs with my father. We never played, but planned to last year, and then corona hit.
BS: Who’s your mentor?
CLM:I never had a mentor. I always envied the young players who had someone guide them and teach them. The closest to a mentor was actually my ex husband. In my early twenties when I just started playing, he told me that dreaming was not enough. I had to work for it and he believed in my talent when nobody else did – including myself. However I have been blessed in recent years to play with amazing partners. Bas Drijver has a very good influence on me, because he helps keeping me focused and not be too creative… He says to me: “Christina, just play normal. If you play normal, we win.” I also had a mixed partner in Denmark in my early years, Michael Askgaard, who played with me when nobody else wanted to, and he also taught me a lot.
