Olympic champion Kristina Vogel: Learning to cry

In her first interview after the accident which changed her life forever, she looks happy and solid. In July, she broke her seventh thoracic vertebra during a collision with another rider. The spinal cord was squeezed. Since then, she sits in a wheelchair and will never be able to walk again. She says that it could have been much worse and indeed, she could have died.

As a professional athlete by heart and soul, giving up was never an option for Kristina Vogel

A long list of achievements is evidence enough for her most succesful career as track rider: two-time Olympic champion and, with eleven world titles in the elite, one of the most successful track cyclists so far.

For outsiders, her positivity may be difficult to understand. The fate of the young woman makes speechless and even comes as a shock. How can anyone deal with such a blow? She simply says: “Why should I feel sorry for myself? It’s the way it is. “She doesn’t want her paralysis to rule her life but, instead, wants to live happily and move on despite of what she is going through. “It’s still my life,” she says, adding that she also feels gratitude for being alive at last.

As a top athlete, she surely knows how to motivate herself. Several years ago, she already had to face and recover from a car accident. Today, she sees it as a kind of preparation for what was to come next. It made her stronger and trained her will to never give up. She openly admits that this “fight back to life” has been harder than anything she has experienced so far. But her indestructible willpower coupled with her optimistic view of the world gives her the strength not to quarrel, but to look ahead.

And she wouldn’t be Kristina Vogel if, even in these stormy times, she wouldn’t have set new goals already

“I can win a gold medal elsewhere, who knows,” she says with a smile. And if you look her in the eye, you do believe it to be absolutely possible.

Kristina Vogel now wants to be a role model, she wants to encourage and spread the desire for life. Her clear message: life is worth living despite all adversities. It just depends on how you look on things and how you deal with a new situation. As a top athlete, she knows how mental training works and is the living proof.

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