#staystrongkristina

Kristina Vogel was one of the most successful track cyclists in the world. At 27, she already had 2 Olympic Gold Medals under her belt and was an 11-time world champion. Further success seemed guaranteed – until the 26th of June 2018. While training in the Cottbus velodrome, Kristina had a serious accident. It was not her first, but it was the most consequential in her momentous career. Since that day, she has been paralysed from the 7th thoracic vertebra down and is wheelchair-bound.

Kristina had already had a severe accident in 2009 which left her in a coma. She still has scars on her face and body from that day. But that time she was able to fight her way back and continue her successful career. Today she’s still fighting – but the success she’s aiming for now is different: small steps back toward an independent life.

People are moved by how Kristina deals with her fate: “I’m in a wheelchair, but I still feel free. After the accident I pressed the reset button, I no longer need to prove anything to anybody. I didn’t really have to before either, but now I finally know that. Now I can breathe and rediscover what great things I can still do with my life. The wheelchair is not a tomb”, she says in a video interview (in german) with Deutsche Sporthilfe, the German fund for athletes.

Deutsche Sporthilfe has been helping Kristina. The association has supported her career since 2005, and now it will support her with a fund dedicated to her, the #staystrongkristina fund.

Every sports fan can donate a large or a small amount to the fund and so directly support Kristina. The money will exclusively be used for upcoming investments and to secure her future.

“I am very happy that Deutsche Sporthilfe is supporting me like this and that I am still valued by them after my accident. The fund is meant to help me in the long term to cover some of the costs arising from my accident. This allows me to focus on what’s really important, finding my way back to a normal life with my disability”, says Kristina.