Kristina Vogel

Extreme Highs and Lows: Success, Crashing and Recovery

Kristina Vogel was born in Leninskoje in 1990. As a Russian German, she moved to Germany when she was six months old. Impatient from the start, she discovered her enthusiasm for cycling by chance.

“Bike E.T. home” was the poster that inspired Kristina Vogel to do her first circuits on a road bike in 2000. Then in 2005, she switched to track cycling.

Kristina Vogel knew it, the danger of a fall is part of the agenda of a professional track cyclist.

Her progress on the track was rapid; after participating in the first national “scouting race”, she was directly selected for the national youth squad. She kept up her speed and won countless national and international titles.

In 2009, Kristina Vogel suffered her first serious setback when a motorist cut out in front of her. The collision couldn’t be avoided: the result was two days in a coma, several broken bones, four weeks in the hospital and three months of rehabilitation before she could finally get back in the saddle. Kristina Vogel knew that the danger of crashes was a matter of course for a professional track cyclist.

Now it had caught up with her, but she never questioned whether to stop or keep going. She was driven by a dream: the 2012 Olympics in London.

With an iron will, she managed to participate in the Track Cycling World Championships merely nine months later. From then on, Kristina Vogel was unstoppable:

• 2 Olympic gold medals
• 11-time world champion
• 6-time junior world champion
• 28-time world cup winner
• 23-time German champion
• 2-time world record holder.

In 2018 Kristina Vogel once again suffered a very serious blow of fate.

On the way to her third Olympic Games and towards becoming the best female track cyclist of all time, Kristina Vogel suffered another serious blow in 2018. In a collision with a Dutch junior cyclist, she suffered several broken bones and injuries.

The result: paralysis. Life in a wheelchair.

Three months after the serious crash, Kristina Vogel returned to the public eye with an emotional interview in Spiegel magazine and a public press conference.

“I feel free”

Since then, Kristina Vogel is standing up to her fate and sharing it with the public as an example. Anyone who thinks her vital courage has been broken will be shown otherwise.

With her infectious vitality, she is a model for believing in yourself.

An exemplary figure during her active years and beyond…

Kristina Vogel is committed to sports and is a personal member of the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB) and the Athlete and Track Commission of the International Cycling Union (UCI).

In the vote for “Female Athlete of the Year 2018”, Kristina Vogel came in second place. She also received a special award as “Model Athlete”.

In May 2019, Kristina Vogel will be running for the City Council of Erfurt. She was also named as an ambassador for the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin.

Kristina Vogel topics of the talk:

• Getting a fresh start: everything is different.
• A different life, new opportunities
• Kristina Vogel: Better paralysed than average
• Kristina Vogel: Stand up!