# Kristina Vogel

Kristina Vogel (born 10 November 1990) is a former German track cyclist. During her career, she won two gold medals and a bronze at the Olympic Games, and became an eleven-time UCI World Champion. She was paralysed following a crash in June 2018.

## Life and career

Vogel was born in Leninskoye, a district of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and moved to Germany with her parents when she was six months old. In 2007 and 2008 she competed at the Junior European and World Championships and became a six-time junior world champion and two-time junior European champion.
In April 2009, Vogel was seriously injured after a collision with a minibus when riding on the roads near her home in Erfurt. She was in an artificial coma for two days. She recovered to compete at the 2010 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, where she finished fifth in the individual sprint and sixth in the team sprint alongside Miriam Welte. She also competed at the 2011 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
At the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne, Vogel and Welte won the gold medal in the team sprint. They set a world record in qualifying which they broke again in the final. Vogel and Welte went on to win the first ever Olympic gold medal in the women's team sprint later that year in London, benefiting from competitors being relegated in both the semifinal and final. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won another gold, in the women's sprint, and a bronze medal in the women's team sprint again with Miriam Welte.
On 26 June 2018, in the Cottbus velodrome, Vogel collided at high speed with a Dutch junior cyclist who was practising a standing start. The heavy impact on the concrete floor caused several fractures, severing her spinal cord at the seventh thoracic vertebrae and consequently caused paraplegia. Vogel's teammate Maximilian Levy was the first to come to her aid, and following the accident, he and fellow cyclist Max Dörnbach, using the hashtag #staystrongkristina, went on to raise €119,752 for her recovery. The Dutch cyclist was uninjured, but Vogel was left paralysed.
In addition to her track cycling career, Vogel was a part-time police officer before her accident. In 2019, she entered politics, standing for election as a candidate for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in Erfurt city council elections.

## Major results
### 2008

    UCI Juniors Track World Championships
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st 500m time trial
    2nd Sprint, Grand Prix de Vitesse de Saint Denis

### 2010

    UEC European Track Championships
       2nd Sprint
       3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)

### 2011

    3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte), UEC European Track Championships

### 2012

    Olympic Games
       1st Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    UCI World Championships
       1st Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
       3rd Keirin

### 2013

    UCI World Championships
       1st Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
       2nd Sprint
    UEC European Track Championships
       1st Sprint
       2nd Keirin
       2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)

### 2014

    UEC European Track Championships
       1st Keirin
       2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
       3rd Sprint
    Cottbuser SprintCup
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st 500m Time Trial
    Memorial of Alexander Lesnikov
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st 500m Time Trial
    Cottbuser SprintCup (2)
       1st Keirin
       2nd Sprint
    GP von Deutschland im Sprint
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
    Cottbuser Nächte
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st Team Sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    1st Sprint, Track-Cycling Challenge Grenchen

### 2015

    UCI World Championships
       1st Sprint
    Cottbuser SprintCup
       1st Keirin
       2nd Sprint
    GP von Deutschland im Sprint
       1st Keirin
       3rd Team Sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    Internationale Radsport Meeting
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st 500m Time Trial
    1st Keirin, Cottbuser Nächte
    UEC European Track Championships
       2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
       3rd Sprint
    2nd Sprint, Cottbuser SprintCup
    2nd Sprint, Dudenhofen
    3rd Keirin, Öschelbronn

### 2016

    Olympic Games
       1st Sprint
       3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    UCI World Championships
       1st Keirin
       3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
       3rd Sprint
    GP von Deutschland im Sprint
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st Team Sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    Cottbuser SprintCup
       1st Sprint
       2nd Keirin
       3rd 500m Time Trial

### 2017

    UCI World Championships
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       3rd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    UEC European Track Championships
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       2nd Team sprint (with Miriam Welte)
    1st Sprint, Round 1, (Pruszków) Track Cycling World Cup
    1st Sprint, Öschelbronn
    1st Keirin, Oberhausen
    1st Sprint, Dudenhofen
    Cottbuser SprintCup
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
    1st Sprint GP von Deutschland im Sprint
    National Track Championships
       1st Keirin
       1st Sprint
       1st Team Sprint (with Pauline Grabosch)
       3rd 500m Time Trial