Six-time Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger has announced the end of her luge career: “The moment has come for me to say: Thank you, that’s it.”
German winter sports are losing an exceptional athlete: Natalie Geisenberger, six-time Olympic champion, has announced the end of her career exclusively in Blickpunkt Sport. “I have decided to end my career and am looking forward to the winter as a television athlete,” said the Miesbacher on BR television. “I look back with two smiling eyes and look forward to the future with two smiling eyes. For me the moment has come to say: Thank you, that’s it.”
The 35-year-old has shaped an era in tobogganing: With her six Olympic gold medals, she is the most successful German Olympian. There are also nine world championship titles. She dominated the toboggan run like no other: Geisenberger won the overall World Cup eight times. “That was a mega, mega, mega, cool time.”
Toboggan racing: “Love at second sight”
The enthusiasm for luge was still quite muted after her first ride on the racing sled. Her “toboggan-crazy teacher” at the Miesbach high school took her and other students to the track at Königssee. “Before my first toboggan ride, I was a skier – I could decide where to go and how fast it went. I couldn’t do that with tobogganing. I was just a passenger – I didn’t like that at first,” says the 35-year-old. year olds. “It was love at second sight. My father persuaded me to try it again. He would really like to watch tobogganing, and he doesn’t want to see Hackl Schorsch, but rather me,” smiles Geisenberger.
So she tried again – and from then on the Upper Bavarian was infected with tobogganing. In January 2007 she made her World Cup debut in Altenberg and raced to second place. “That was the perfect start for me,” remembers the 35-year-old. She celebrated her first World Cup victory in December 2008 in Oberhof. In total she won 52 World Cups.
“Toboggan mom” crowns comeback in Beijing
And there certainly could have been more. She had to miss the 2019/20 season – for a happy reason: in May 2020 she gave birth to her son Leo. In her comeback season after the baby break, the “toboggan mom” also had a big goal: the 50th World Cup victory. “I was second six times, but then it finally worked out in Oberhof and the 50th meant a lot to me.”
But the Olympic victory in Beijing was even more important to her: “To reach the finish line and see the number one – I thought to myself, that doesn’t even exist. To crown this comeback with an Olympic victory – amazing!” She is particularly proud of this great success as a mother in competitive sports.
Geisenberger just wants to “be a mother”
Because “there are very few mothers in competitive sports,” Geisenberger stated during a BR24Sport Instagram talk some time ago. But she received full support from her association. “Everything I wanted was implemented by the association. (…) I often had extra training and breastfed in between,” said the six-time Olympic champion at the time. This is not a given, as “the topic itself is new. The fact that coaches and associations don’t know much better is simply because there are so few athletes who come back as mothers and want to make a comeback.”
Geisenberger is now a mother of two. Daughter Lina was born in January. Your plans for the future? The 35-year-old wants to stay with the federal police. And: “I want to enjoy a lot of time with my family and be a mother.”
The complete interview in the video
Geisenberger’s record at major events
Olympic games
World Championships
European Championships
The interview with a look back at the career in the video
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Source: Blickpunkt Sport September 24, 2023 – 9:45 p.m
