Even 31 years after her debut in the World Cup, speed skater Claudia Pechstein still wants to set “one or the other highlight”. In addition to the sporting descent, the start of the season also had a small highlight to offer. A major event in the future spurs them on.
She runs and runs and runs – endurance specialist Claudia Pechstein still shows stamina 31 years after her World Cup debut. At the start of the season in Stavanger, Norway, the Berliner demonstrated with eleventh place in the mass start that even at the age of 50 she still belongs to the extended world elite in speed skating. “I was happy to qualify for the finals in the mass start under these conditions and at my age and to be able to scratch a top ten place there,” she says.
Although the end of her sporting career is approaching, it is far from clearly defined. Rather, the five-time Olympic champion keeps putting off her departure from the ice rinks into an undefined future. While her eighth start at the Olympic Winter Games, which she enjoyed to the full in February in Beijing as the flag bearer of the German team at the opening ceremony, was the driving force behind daily drudgery in training, she has found new motivation again. “Trying out how close I can get to the ninth games,” she says as her leitmotif. The next Winter Games will take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2026.
But the present is called Heerenveen. The second World Cup will be held in the Dutch speed skating stronghold from this Friday until Sunday. After 16th place over 3000 meters in Stavanger, Pechstein lost her starting place in the strong A group and is running in the B group there. She is looking forward to a great atmosphere and seeing many Dutch friends again, says Pechstein. “In terms of sport, I’ll try as always to do my best and let myself be surprised at what comes out of it,” she adds. Will you be able to return to the top group this winter? “That’s a crystal ball question that nobody can answer with certainty,” she explains skeptically. Her competitors, some of whom are not even half her age, run far ahead of her in terms of time.
While Felix Rijhnen celebrated his first World Cup victory in a mass start in Stavanger, podium places like in the past are apparently completely out of reach for the Berliner. She knows that herself, so her claims are more modest. “Above all, stay healthy and maybe set one or the other highlight for my age,” she says as the goal. The most promising is the mass start over 16 laps with intermediate sprints. There she was ninth in Beijing. “Anything is always possible in a mass start,” says national coach Helge Jasch.
For Claudia Pechstein, it is no longer only top rankings that count as success. Especially because the federal police officer has been studying to become a trainer for some time. “I have to balance study and training in everyday life. That means the priorities have shifted,” she reports. Everything is going according to plan there and she expects to graduate in two and a half years.
On the other hand, it is not foreseeable when their legal fight for damages and compensation for pain and suffering against the World Ice Skating Association (ISU) will end. After the Federal Constitutional Court overturned a judgment of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) from 2016 in the summer, she can continue to fight for compensation in the millions before the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG). “I very much hope that there will be a hearing before the Higher Regional Court in Munich in the first half of 2023 and that the ISU bosses will finally be held accountable for what they did to me,” she explains.
The five-time Olympic champion was banned for two years by the ISU in February 2009 because of abnormal blood values. Pechstein has always denied doping. Subsequent intensive investigations identified a blood anomaly inherited from the father as the reason for her increased values. Since then, the 50-year-old has sued the world association.
