For team sprint Olympic champion Victoria Carl, the dream of Olympic individual gold will probably burst. The 30-year-old is suspended, waiting for her doping ban and training alone. “A catastrophe,” said national coach Peter Schlickenrieder.
This is certainly not how Germany’s best cross-country skier imagined her 2025/26 Olympic season. Victoria Carl finished last winter in second place in the overall World Cup standings and raised hopes of a medal at the Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Milan in 2025. But now the 30-year-old’s chances of taking part in the big event are rapidly dwindling.
With Carl, national cross-country skiing coach Peter Schlickenrieder will be missing an athlete “who could most likely have won an individual medal.” The 55-year-old does not currently see that she will be able to show her skills on the largest sports stage in the world in Italy in February.
Waiting anxiously for the lockdown
What happened? The 2022 Olympic team sprint champion tested positive for the drug clenbuterol during a doping control at the end of March. The substance is said to have been contained in a cough syrup that was prescribed to Carl after the end of the World Military Games season. However, a decision about the consequences it will ultimately have for them has been pending for months.
Schlickenrieder remains realistic in an interview with BR24Sport and expects a ban at least until the Olympic Games. “We have now been put off until mid-November,” said the coach, who would like to see the postponement of the verdict from September to October and now November as a good sign: “You seem to be examining the case meticulously.” He hopes that the punishment for Victoria Carl will be as light as possible.
Situation for Carl “extremely mentally difficult”
Until then, however, the situation for Carl would be “a catastrophe and mentally extremely difficult,” explains Schlickenrieder. Due to this temporary suspension, the 30-year-old is no longer allowed to train in the training group or with the national team. So she “has to do everything alone” and “isn’t allowed to go to federally funded training centers, which means she has to look for a lot of alternatives. Of course, that’s a lot to do mentally when you suddenly no longer have a training group.”
Long-term goal: Olympics 2030
The national coach is still sure that his top athlete will overcome the valley: “We know Vicky, she will always motivate herself.”
In order to get through this stressful time, Carl also receives the greatest possible support. The 30-year-old is in close contact with a psychologist from the DSV. The trainers would also check in with her on a weekly basis. “She does everything that is possible within the limits imposed,” says Schlickenrieder.
To motivate Carl, the team and the national coach are trying to “set her the long-term goal of the 2030 Olympics – you can do that. And then I would like to see you leave the field as an Olympic champion,” said Schlickenrieder.
World Cup season starts on November 28th
The World Cup season traditionally begins in Ruka, Finland. There the cross-country skiing stars will test their Olympic form against international competition for the first time on November 28, 2025. It remains to be seen whether Victoria Carl will be there after all.
Source: BR24Sport on the radio October 30, 2025 – 2:55 p.m
