Kristina Vogel (born 10 November 1990) is a former German track cyclist. During her career, she won two gold medals and a bronze at the Olympic Games, and became an eleven-time UCI World Champion. She was paralysed following a crash in June 2018.
Life and career Vogel was born in Leninskoye, a district of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and moved to Germany with her parents when she was six months old. In 2007 and 2008 she competed at the Junior European and World Championships and became a six-time junior world champion and two-time junior European champion.
In April 2009, Vogel was seriously injured after a collision with a minibus when riding on the roads near her home in Erfurt. She was in an artificial coma for two days. She recovered to compete at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, where she finished fifth in the individual sprint and sixth in the team sprint alongside Miriam Welte. She also competed at the 2011 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
At the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne, Vogel and Welte won the gold medal in the team sprint. They set a world record in qualifying which they broke again in the final. Vogel and Welte went on to win the first ever Olympic gold medal in the women's team sprint later that year in London, benefiting from competitors being relegated in both the semifinal and final. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won another gold, in the women's sprint, and a bronze medal in the women's team sprint again with Miriam Welte.
On 26 June 2018, in the Cottbus velodrome, Vogel collided at high speed with a Dutch junior cyclist who was practising a standing start. The heavy impact on the concrete floor caused several fractures, severing her spinal cord at the seventh thoracic vertebrae and consequently caused paraplegia. Vogel's teammate Maximilian Levy was the first to come to her aid, and following the accident, he and fellow cyclist Max Dörnbach, using the hashtag #staystrongkristina, went on to raise €119,752 for her recovery. The Dutch cyclist was uninjured, but Vogel was left paralysed.
In addition to her track cycling career, Vogel was a part-time police officer before her accident. In 2019, she entered politics, standing for election as a candidate for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in Erfurt city council elections.
Major results
2008 UCI Juniors Track World Championships 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st 500m time trial 2nd Sprint, Grand Prix de Vitesse de Saint Denis
2010 UEC European Track Championships 2nd Sprint 3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
2011 3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte), UEC European Track Championships
2012 Olympic Games 1st Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) UCI World Championships 1st Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) 3rd Keirin
2013 UCI World Championships 1st Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) 2nd Sprint UEC European Track Championships 1st Sprint 2nd Keirin 2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
2014 UEC European Track Championships 1st Keirin 2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) 3rd Sprint Cottbuser SprintCup 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st 500m Time Trial Memorial of Alexander Lesnikov 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st 500m Time Trial Cottbuser SprintCup (2) 1st Keirin 2nd Sprint GP von Deutschland im Sprint 1st Keirin 1st Sprint Cottbuser Nächte 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st Team Sprint (with Miriam Welte) 1st Sprint, Track-Cycling Challenge Grenchen
2015 UCI World Championships 1st Sprint Cottbuser SprintCup 1st Keirin 2nd Sprint GP von Deutschland im Sprint 1st Keirin 3rd Team Sprint (with Miriam Welte) Internationale Radsport Meeting 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st 500m Time Trial 1st Keirin, Cottbuser Nächte UEC European Track Championships 2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) 3rd Sprint 2nd Sprint, Cottbuser SprintCup 2nd Sprint, Dudenhofen 3rd Keirin, Öschelbronn
2016 Olympic Games 1st Sprint 3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) UCI World Championships 1st Keirin 3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) 3rd Sprint GP von Deutschland im Sprint 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st Team Sprint (with Miriam Welte) Cottbuser SprintCup 1st Sprint 2nd Keirin 3rd 500m Time Trial
2017 UCI World Championships 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) UEC European Track Championships 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte) 1st Sprint, Round 1, (Pruszków) Track Cycling World Cup 1st Sprint, Öschelbronn 1st Keirin, Oberhausen 1st Sprint, Dudenhofen Cottbuser SprintCup 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st Sprint GP von Deutschland im Sprint National Track Championships 1st Keirin 1st Sprint 1st Team Sprint (with Pauline Grabosch) 3rd 500m Time Trial
References
External links