“I wrote on a piece of paper ‘is my bike broken or not, I want to get a new one, I just want to ride my bike’. I was on my bike and I crashed in to a car, I had two days in coma, a lot of bone fractures, it was a really hard moment in my life, but I believed in myself and I accepted the bad position and I’m back,” she said in an interview for BBC.
Her dedication was incredible and only a year later she was back. Vogel competed at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and finished fifth, her best result ever. In 2012, alongside Miriam Welte, Kristina managed to win the gold at the World Championships in Melbourne.
So, naturally, now she wants the Olympic gold.
“It’s hard, everyone is looking at you and wants to beat you, but I think I’m one of the best sprinters in the world. I like the role to be the hunter or be the hunted,” says Kristina and you can understand why. When she’s not excelling on the track, Vogel is out there in Germany chasing bad guys in a police car.
“When I quit my career as an athlete I have something, something I love. I’m a federal police officer of a lifetime, no one can push me out, it’s good!”
Yes, she’s a policewoman! And that sometimes brings the unavoidable funny situations. “I’m not a superstar in Germany, but when I stop them, they’re like ‘yeah, you are Kristina Vogel’.”
Being a cycling fan doesn’t get you out of a ticket though… “When someone is a bad, bad girl or guy, I have to arrest them,” admits Vogel.
Shame, eh? Anyway, good luck in Rio, Kristina!
