Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann biography
Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann, née Gunda Kleeman, (born September 7, 1966, Sondershausen, East Germany [now in Germany]), German velocity skater who dominated the game all through the Nineties, capturing eight world championships and eight Olympic medals.
She left dwelling for a sports activities college when she was 12 years previous, initially enjoying volleyball however quickly taking on athletics (monitor and area). Although mildly profitable as a hurdler, she shifted her focus to velocity skating at age 17. Her first look within the Olympic Games got here as a member of the East German workforce in 1988 at Calgary, Alberta, the place she completed seventh in each the 1,500 metres and the 5,000 metres. (Her marriage to Detlef Niemann, an East German judo competitor, led to divorce in 1990, however she saved his identify, hyphenating it when she married Oliver Stirnemann in 1997.) It was on the 1992 Winter Games at Albertville, France, whereas competing for the unified German squad, that she started to show her command of the game: she received the gold medal within the 3,000 metres and the 5,000 metres and the silver within the 1,500 metres. This efficiency made her the favorite on the 1994 Games at Lillehammer, Norway, however she failed—comparatively talking—when she took the bronze within the 1,500 metres and the silver within the 5,000 metres and appeared headed for the gold within the 3,000 metres however fell and was disqualified. Despite the letdown, the skater, 5 toes 7 inches (1.7 metres) and 148 kilos (67 kg), had 5 Olympic medals in her possession.
In the following years, Niemann-Stirnemann dominated velocity skating, ending first in almost each main occasion from 1995 via 1997. Dubbed the “ice queen” by the media, she earned greater than $300,000 in endorsements in 1997 alone. In April 1997 she underwent knee surgical procedure and spent the summer time in-line skating to rehabilitate herself. Any doubts about her situation for the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, have been quelled, nevertheless, when she set a world document in a 3,000-metre race simply two months earlier than the Games. At Nagano she received the three,000 metres and took the silver within the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres. In that final race, Niemann-Stirnemann broke her personal world document and have become the primary lady ever to submit a 5,000-metre time beneath seven minutes when she crossed the end line in 6 min 59.65 sec. Her whole of eight medals made her probably the most embellished athletes within the historical past of the Winter Games. She retired from aggressive skating in 2005.
Niemann-Stirnemann’s autobiography Ich will: Traumkarriere mit Tränen und Triumphen (“I Want: Dream Career with Tears and Triumphs”) was printed in 2000.