At the training center, she pauses for a moment to peer through a glass door in the gym. She laughs about the pace of her life now. German coach Detlef Uibel tells dpa, “We’re very worried about Kristina. But she is happy at the moment jetting around the world, receiving honors like the UCI Merit Award and giving motivational talks to businesses and students. At age 14, she moved away from home to attend sports school, and remembers her mother crying as she left. Three years later, she won Olympic gold in the team sprint. When she awoke, Vogel was told she was paralyzed, though she would still have use of her arms and hands. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! But I want to say, life is what you make of it, and I hope I can give other people strength through my story.". Kristina Vogel. "It hasn't just gone because I can't do it anymore, but the reason I started to be a track cyclist is still in me, and I want to share that love with all the people.". Vogel had been training at the velodrome in Cottbus for the 28th edition of the German Sprint Grand Prix when the crash happened. Now she helps others compete. Kristina Vogel was the queen of her sport, having been both a world and Olympic champion in track cycling. It looks very bad.” Vogel, an 11-time world champion, was taken to the local hospital before being flown to Berlin. World champion Kristina Vogel of Germany holds her UCI gold medal. Vogel admits she still has her lows, or “black moments,” as she calls them. “[That’s] the thing that I did as a cyclist, day by day.”. But with the steely determination and grit that characterized her career as a cyclist, Vogel completed a lap around the velodrome in her wheelchair to an enthusiastic ovation from the crowd. Two-time Olympic track champion Kristina Vogel is paralysed from the chest down after a horror training crash earlier this year, according to German magazine Der … Recently, over dinner with her sister, she was recognized by a woman at the restaurant who told Vogel she had cancer, and “…she knows she can deal with it because I’m dealing with my situation,” Vogel said. In her old life, moments like this went hand in hand with a gold medal. PARALYSED Kristina Vogel is learning like a "baby" again as she deals with the painful process of intensive rehab. Vogel still lives with the same urgency she had in her track cycling days; that competitive spirit is inextinguishable. RELATED ARTICLE: Olympic Cyclist Kristina Vogel Speaks Out After Crash Left Her Paralyzed: ‘Crying is OK’ Following the game, a Banner Tribute … Vogel, then 27, was training for the team sprint on a concrete track in Cottbus, Germany. Vogel trained here during her track career; her autograph is on the London 2012 and Rio 2016 posters in the reception area. But the news, she said, wasn’t surprising or even alarming. Publicly, she thrived on being the superstar at the velodrome, but privately, she struggled to sleep, worried about living up to her status as one of Germany's most celebrated Olympians. She’s channeled her athleticism into new sports, dabbling in archery, bowling, basketball and canoeing, but hasn’t decided if she wants to return to high-level competition. But afterward, people came up to talk to her about their own accidents or struggles. Then she heads around to give pointers to Gudrun Stock, a 24-year-old cyclist, as she lifts dumbbells for what seems like an eternity. Chris Hoy meets 11-time track cycling world champion Kristina Vogel and hears how she is coming to terms with her new life after a serious crash left her unable to walk. Olympic champion track cyclist Kristina Vogel, who was left paralysed from the chest down after a training crash last June, says she still has a passion for the sport as she prepares to commentate in the UCI Track Cycling World Championships which start in Poland on Wednesday. Vogel relives moments after horror crash; Rescheduled Tokyo Games to open July 23, 2021 She had multiple operations over the next three months. A serious bike crash in June has left Kristina Vogel, Germany’s Olympic and world sprint cycling champion, paralyzed from the waist down, the 27-year-old revealed on Friday. I’m talking about Kristina Vogel’s crash. Media outlets, competitors and fans knew she'd been in a crash; rumors of its severity swirled. But then something very tragic happened, which makes everything quite relative. “It’s a crappy situation, there’s no other way to put it,” the 27-year-old told news weekly Der Spiegel in her first interview since the June 26 crash. she says. She remains active in the cycling community, continuing to serve as a member of the athletes’ commission for the international cycling federation (UCI). This used to be Germany's "Olympic secret," as Vogel puts it, as its Olympic program was one of the first to have an "altitude chamber," an oxygen-deprived room to help enhance athletes' aerobic capacity. I'm talking about Kristina Vogel's crash. Vogel sustained life threatening injuries in a horrific training accident in Cottbus last June, colliding with a stationary cyclist at over 60kph. “It surprises me that other people come to me and say, ‘oh my gosh, I couldn’t do that,’” Vogel said. It is early morning on a December day at the Bundesleistungszentrum Kienbaum training facility, 20 miles east of Berlin near the border with Poland. She was concerned that she might be snapped by a photographer on her balcony at home in Erfurt while in her wheelchair; she wanted to control the narrative. "I always asked myself: What's the reason I'm on earth? While broadcasting at the 2019 world championships in Pruszkow, Poland, she witnessed a New Zealand cyclist crash and have to be carried off on a stretcher. As an athlete, if she identified a problem, she would fix it immediately. He gave me so much strength.”. I could not start this new life by riding halfpipes, but it meant to me that while I was limited in some ways, there was no limit on my mind." Kristina Vogel, a two-time Olympic sprint champion and 11-time world champion, is one of the most successful track cyclists of all time. Another cyclist was standing on the track, but Vogel, traveling full-speed at about 37 miles per hour, didn’t see him, and they collided. "Before my accident, I was just in this track cycling roll, and everything was about being more aerodynamic, the training and nutrition, and it was just being a competing athlete." The crash severed her spinal cord. "I really love my hometown. 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