German Olympic champion Kristina Vogel airlifted to trauma unit after track crash

German national team coach says "it looks very bad"

Kristina Vogel. Photo: Graham Watson
(Image credit: Watson)

One of Germany's best track sprinters has been seriously injured following a crash whilst training on the Cottbus velodrome.

Double Olympic champion Kristina Vogel had been training with four-time junior World Champion Pauline Grabosch.

According to sportschau.de, when Grabosch drove off the train of riders, Vogel accelerated and collided with another athlete who had "suddenly hit the train."

The BDR Media service has stated: "[she] collided at full speed." Vogel crashed on the tarmac surface, resulting in what's been called a "severe spinal injury."

The 27-year-old was initially taken to hospital in Cottbus, before being airlifted to the trauma centre in Berlin.

National team coach Detlef Uibel has told the German press agency: "We are very worried about Kristina, it looks very bad."

Her manager Jörg Werner added "she is badly injured" but no more detail has been given.

Vogel has already returned from serious injury over the course of her career - in 2009 she was hit by a vehicle when training on the road. Then 18-years-old, she was in an induced come for two days and suffered a broken vertebrae, broken jaw and fractures to her arm and hands.

Since then, she's scooped up 11 world championship titles, plus two Olympic gold medals - one in the team sprint in 2012 and one in the solo event in 2016.

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Michelle Arthurs-Brennan

Michelle Arthurs-Brennan is a traditional journalist by trade, having begun her career working for a local newspaper, where highlights included interviewing a very irate Freddie Star (and an even more irate theatre owner), as well as 'the one about the stolen chickens'.


Previous to joining the Cycling Weekly team, Michelle was Editor at Total Women's Cycling. She joined CW as an 'SEO Analyst', but couldn't keep her nose out of journalism and in the spreadsheets, eventually taking on the role of Tech Editor before her latest appointment as Digital Editor. 


Michelle is a road racer who also enjoys track riding and the occasional time trial, though dabbles in off-road riding too (either on a mountain bike, or a 'gravel bike'). She is passionate about supporting grassroots women's racing and founded the women's road race team 1904rt.


Michelle is on maternity leave from July 8 2022, until April 2023.