Alexandra Burghardt has won almost everything there was to win in her career. Now the track and field athlete and former bobsleigh pusher is ending her career. In the interview she looks back on an extraordinary career.
It wasn’t the Olympic silver medal in bobsleigh at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. And also not the bronze medal with the German sprint relay at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. When Alexandra Burghardt looks back on the greatest moment of her extraordinary career, she thinks of another moment: her start in the 100 meters at the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021.
“I fulfilled my childhood dream. This run meant the most to me,” says the Upper Bavarian in an interview with BR24Sport. Now the 32-year-old is ending her career. “I’ve thought a lot about when the perfect time is. You feel it at some point. I’m super happy with my career.”
Burghardt: “I didn’t dare to dream big”
For many years, Burghardt was one of the German sprint elite. But her path to the top wasn’t always straight. Slowed down by injuries, she repeatedly had to cope with setbacks and fight her way back. But giving up was never an option for her. “At the beginning of my career, I didn’t dare to dream big,” she says. “But getting up again and again, knowing that there is still something inside me, that there is greater success, motivated me.”
And these great successes came: World Cup bronze and European Championship gold with the German 4×100 meter relay, national titles over 100 and 200 meters, a total of four Olympic participations, three in the summer games, one in the winter games. A career that many athletes can only dream of.
From tennis to athletics
Burghardt started playing tennis at the age of five. She already stood out with her speed and jumping power. Her tennis coach at the time advised her to try athletics. And that’s where the great success finally began.
“Alex could do everything, she was always at the forefront,” remembers Christine Beckerle, one of her first trainers at TSV Winhöring. A career began there that took Alexandra Burghardt to the biggest sports stages in the world.
Best mark for them History books
Her first really big coronation followed in 2022. But not on the tartan track. In the winter she switched to bobsleigh at short notice and became Mariama Jamanka’s pusher. The duo harmonized straight away. In Beijing they won Olympic silver. Two years later, she won Olympic bronze in the sprint relay in Paris.
In doing so, she wrote sports history. Only seven athletes in the world have won Olympic medals in both summer and winter games before her. Burghardt is only the second German to achieve this. Before her, only Christa Luding-Rothenburger had achieved this for the GDR in speed skating and track cycling.
Olympic precious metal full of memories
Which of the two successes means the most to Burghardt? “Both medals have great value to me. There is none that means more to me.” Today their Olympic medals bear the traces of many memories. The bronze medal from Paris and the silver medal from Beijing have some minor wear.
“The ones from Paris could have been replaced, but I didn’t want to,” says Burghardt. “Medals should be celebrated. And sometimes one falls down. That’s part of it.”
Burghardt’s trophies tell their extraordinary story: from their beginnings on an Upper Bavarian sports field to the Olympic history books. “I want to be remembered as someone who always took new paths and believed in himself.” And she will.
But the best memory of her career cannot be measured in precious metal. It’s the Olympic semi-finals in Tokyo. A run with which she fulfilled her childhood dream.
Source: BR24 June 9, 2026 – 2:00 p.m
