Claudia Pechstein

Claudia Pechstein

Medal record
Representing  Germany
Women's speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	3000 m
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	5000 m
Gold	1998 Nagano	5000 m
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	5000 m
Gold	2006 Turin	Team pursuit
Silver	1998 Nagano	3000 m
Silver	2006 Turin	5000 m
Bronze	1992 Albertville	5000 m
Bronze	1994 Lillehammer	3000 m
World Championships
Gold	2000 Nagano	1500 m
Gold	2000 Nagano	3000 m
Gold	2004 Seoul	3000 m
Gold	1996 Hamar	5000 m
Gold	2003 Berlin	5000 m
Gold	2000 Milwaukee	Allround
Silver	1996 Hamar	1500 m
Silver	1996 Hamar	3000 m
Silver	1998 Calgary	3000 m
Silver	1999 Heerenveen	3000 m
Silver	2003 Berlin	3000 m
Silver	2005 Inzell	3000 m
Silver	1998 Calgary	5000 m
Silver	1999 Heerenveen	5000 m
Silver	2000 Nagano	5000 m
Silver	2001 Salt Lake City	5000 m
Silver	2005 Inzell	5000 m
Silver	2007 Salt Lake City	5000 m
Silver	1996 Inzell	Allround
Silver	1997 Nagano	Allround
Silver	1998 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	1999 Hamar	Allround
Silver	2001 Budapest	Allround
Silver	2003 Gothenburg	Allround
Silver	2004 Hamar	Allround
Silver	2006 Calgary	Allround
Bronze	1998 Calgary	1500 m
Bronze	2001 Salt Lake City	3000 m
Bronze	1997 Warszawa	5000 m
Bronze	2004 Seoul	5000 m
Bronze	2002 Heerenveen	Allround
Bronze	2005 Moscow	Allround
Bronze	2007 Salt Lake City	Team pursuit
Bronze	2008 Nagano	Team pursuit
Bronze	2011 Inzell	5000 m
Bronze	2011 Inzell	Team pursuit
Bronze	2012 Heerenveen	5000 m
Bronze	2013 Sochi	3000 m
Bronze	2013 Sochi	5000 m
European Championships
Gold	1998 Helsinki	Allround
Gold	2006 Hamar	Allround
Gold	2009 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	1999 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	2001 Baselga di Piné	Allround
Silver	2002 Erfurt	Allround
Silver	2003 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	2004 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	2012 Budapest	Allround
Bronze	1996 Heerenveen	Allround
Bronze	2005 Heerenveen	Allround

Claudia Pechstein (born 22 February 1972) is a German speed skater.

With a total of five Olympic gold medals, two silver, and two bronze medals, she is the most successful Olympic speed skater, male or female, in the world, and also the most successful German Winter Olympian of all time. Pechstein is the first female Winter Olympian to win medals in five consecutive Olympics (1992–2006), and she won the gold medal in the women's 5000 meter race in three consecutive Olympics (1994–2002), the bronze in the first (1992) and the silver medal in the fifth (2006). In the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Pechstein also won a gold medal in the women's team pursuit. With eight medals in individual singles events, she is the most successful German summer and winter Olympian, male or female.

Biography

Pechstein was born in East Berlin. She held a world record on the 5000 m track with the time 6:46.91 achieved on the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City on 23 February 2002, which was beaten by Martina Sáblíková on the same oval five years later.

Pechstein is a sergeant in the German Federal Police and trains at the force's sports training centre at Bad Endorf.

As reported by Olympic news outlet Around the Rings, Pechstein is aiming for an Olympic return, this time as a cyclist. "I will start in the individual pursuit at the German Track Championships from 6 to 10 July in Berlin", she said. "I am also planning to race the individual sprint or the 500-meter time trial. I trust I can do this because as a skater I've trained a lot on the bike. I have nothing to lose. I don't know how this kind of competition works, so this alone is really exciting".

Two-year ban because of accusation of blood doping

Claudia Pechstein (2007)

After the World Championships in Norway in February 2009, the International Skating Union accused Pechstein of blood doping and banned her from all competitions for two years. This ban was based on irregular levels of reticulocytes in her blood. These levels were highest during the Calgary World Cup 2007 and the Hamar World Championships in 2009; elevated levels were also found during a number of other competitions and training spot checks.^[1]

Pechstein denied that she had doped and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, claiming among other things that she has an inherited condition explaining the abnormal measurements. The court affirmed the ban in November 2009, finding no evidence for an inherited condition in the expert testimony provided by Pechstein.^[2] This was the first case of doping based on circumstantial evidence alone; no forbidden substances were ever found during her repeated tests.^[1][3]

In December 2009 she asked the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland for an injunction and was allowed to participate at a single 3000 m race in Salt Lake City, so that she could qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver should her appeal of the ban be successful. She finished 13th in the race on 11 December but would have needed a place among the top 8 to qualify for the Olympics.^[4]

In January 2010 the Swiss Federal Supreme Court refused to temporarily suspend Pechstein's ban for the Olympics.^[5] On 19 February 2010 the CAS ad hoc panel at the Vancouver Olympics rejected Pechstein's last minute appeal to be admitted to the ice skating team events.^[6]

In February 2010, Pechstein filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against the International Skating Union, alleging trial fraud.^[7]

On 15 March 2010, Gerhard Ehninger, head of the German Society for Hematology and Oncology, said that an evaluation of the case points to a light form of a blood anemia called spherocytosis – apparently inherited from her father.^[8] Pechstein attempted to use this new evidence in her appeal before the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. The International Skating Union issued a press release explaining their opposition to this appeal.^[9]

Pechstein stood to lose her position with the German Federal Police should blood doping have been proved "beyond reasonable doubt". Disciplinary proceedings against her were halted in August 2010 because no such proof was available.^[10] Pechstein applied for unpaid leave in order to be able to continue her training, which was denied. As a result, she suffered a nervous breakdown in September 2010.^[11]

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court issued its final ruling on 28 September 2010, rejecting Pechstein's appeal and confirming the ban.^[12] Pechstein returned to competition in February 2011. She next won the bronze medal in the 2011 World Championships in the 5000 m race, finishing behind world champion Martina Sáblíková from the Czech Republic, and her teammate Stephanie Beckert.

Skating records

Personal records

World records

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com^[14]

Results

Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com^[14]

See also

• List of multiple Winter Olympic medalists
• List of multiple Olympic medalists in one event

References

External links

• Official website (German)
• Photos of Claudia Pechstein
• Claudia Pechstein at Olympic.org
• Claudia Pechstein at SpeedSkatingStats.com
• Media related to Claudia Pechstein at Wikimedia Commons