Claudia Pechstein biography
Claudia Pechstein, (born February 22, 1972, East Berlin, East Germany), German pace skater whose 9 Olympic medals (5 gold, two silver, and two bronze) made her one of many sport’s most adorned Olympians.
Pechstein started determine skating at age 3 and switched to pace skating at age 9. She first got here on the worldwide scene at age 16, when she completed second general within the 1988 world junior speed-skating championships in Seoul, South Korea. In 1992 she went to her first Winter Olympic Games, in Albertville, France, the place she gained a bronze medal within the 5,000-metre occasion. She gained her first Olympic gold two years later, triumphing within the 5,000-metre race in Lillehammer, Norway, the place she additionally gained her second bronze, for the three,000-metre occasion.
At the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, Pechstein repeated her gold medal efficiency within the 5,000 metres and took silver within the 3,000 metres. It was in Nagano that she emerged from underneath the shadow of her teammate Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann, whom she beat for the gold by 0.04 sec within the closest ladies’s 5,000 metres in Olympic historical past. In 2000 Pechstein gained the general world speed-skating championship. She completed second to a different teammate, Anni Friesinger, in 2001 and third behind Friesinger and Canadian Cindy Klassen in 2002.
During the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, Pechstein—skating in finals that had been 13 days aside—took the gold medal within the 3,000-metre and 5,000-metre races, profitable each with world file performances. She thus raised her profession whole to 4 golds amongst seven Olympic medals. By capturing the 5,000-metre Olympic gold for the third time in succession, Pechstein additionally grew to become the second skater in historical past (after American Bonnie Blair) to make a profitable protection of an Olympic title twice. Her victory in Salt Lake City marked the second time that she beat the 4-minute barrier and was the fifth world file efficiency of her profession.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Pechstein took a silver medal within the 5,000 metres and a gold medal in workforce pursuit. With these wins, her eighth and ninth, she surpassed the file held by former Olympians Karin Enke and Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann for many medals gained by a pace skater within the Winter Olympics; Pechstein’s file was surpassed by Ireen Wüst of the Netherlands in 2018. In 2009 Pechstein obtained a two-year ban for blood doping. Her varied appeals had been unsuccessful, and she or he didn't return to competitors till 2011. At that yr’s world championships, she gained bronze medals within the 5,000 metres and the workforce pursuit. Pechstein later competed on the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, and on the 2018 Olympics in P’yǒngch’ang, South Korea, however did not win a medal.