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Medal record
Claudia Pechstein
Competitor for  Germany
Women's speed skating
Olympic Games
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	3000 m
Gold	1994 Lillehammer	5000 m
Gold	1998 Nagano	5000 m
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	5000 m
Gold	2006 Turin	Team pursuit
Silver	1998 Nagano	3000 m
Silver	2006 Turin	5000 m
Bronze	1992 Albertville	5000 m
Bronze	1994 Lillehammer	3000 m
World Championships
Gold	2000 Nagano	1500 m
Gold	2000 Nagano	3000 m
Gold	2004 Seoul	3000 m
Gold	1996 Hamar	5000 m
Gold	2003 Berlin	5000 m
Gold	2000 Milwaukee	Allround
Silver	1996 Hamar	1500 m
Silver	1996 Hamar	3000 m
Silver	1998 Calgary	3000 m
Silver	1999 Heerenveen	3000 m
Silver	2003 Berlin	3000 m
Silver	2005 Inzell	3000 m
Silver	1998 Calgary	5000 m
Silver	1999 Heerenveen	5000 m
Silver	2000 Nagano	5000 m
Silver	2001 Salt Like City	5000 m
Silver	2005 Inzell	5000 m
Silver	2007 Salt Lake City	5000 m
Silver	1996 Inzell	Allround
Silver	1997 Nagano	Allround
Silver	1998 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	1999 Hamar	Allround
Silver	2001 Budapest	Allround
Silver	2003 Gothenburg	Allround
Silver	2004 Hamar	Allround
Silver	2006 Calgary	Allround
Bronze	1998 Calgary	1500 m
Bronze	2001 Salt Lake City	3000 m
Bronze	1997 Warszawa	5000 m
Bronze	2004 Seoul	5000 m
Bronze	2002 Heerenveen	Allround
Bronze	2005 Moscow	Allround
Bronze	2007 Salt Lake City	Team pursuit
Bronze	2008 Nagano	Team pursuit
European Championships
Gold	1998 Helsinki	Allround
Gold	2006 Hamar	Allround
Gold	2009 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	1999 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	2001 Baselga di Piné	Allround
Silver	2002 Erfurt	Allround
Silver	2003 Heerenveen	Allround
Silver	2004 Heerenveen	Allround
Bronze	1996 Heerenveen	Allround
Bronze	2005 Heerenveen	Allround

Claudia Pechstein (born 22 February 1972) is a German speed skater. With a total of five Olympic gold medals, two silver, and two bronze medals, she is the most successful German Winter Olympian of all time. Pechstein is the first female Winter Olympian to win medals in five consecutive Olympics (1992–2006), and she won the gold medal in the women's 5,000 meter race in three consecutive Olympics (1994–2002), and the silver medal in the fourth (2006). In the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Pechstein also won a gold medal in the women's team pursuit.

Claudia Pechstein was born in East Berlin. She held a world record on the 5,000 m track with the time 6:46.91 achieved on the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City on 23 February 2002, which was beaten by Martina Sáblíková on the same oval five years later.

Pechstein is a sergeant in the German Federal Police and trains at the force's sports training centre at Bad Endorf.

Ban because of blood doping

After the World Championships in Norway in February 2009, the International Skating Union accused Pechstein of blood doping and banned her from all competitions for two years. This ban was based on irregular levels of reticulocytes in her blood. These levels were highest during the Calgary World Cup 2007 and the Hamar World Championships in 2009; elevated levels were also found during a number of other competitions and during a small minority of training spot checks.^[1] Pechstein denied that she had doped and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne; the court affirmed the ban in November 2009. This was the first case of doping based on circumstantial evidence alone; no forbidden substances were ever found during her repeated tests. Pechstein vowed to appeal her case to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. She stands to lose her job with the Federal Police should the decision be confirmed.^[1][2]

In December 2009 she asked the Federal Supreme Court for an injunction and was allowed to participate at a single 3000m race in Salt Lake City, so that she could qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver should her appeal of the ban be successful. She finished 13th in the race on 11 December but would have needed a place among the top 8 to qualify for the Olympics.^[3]

In January 2010 the Swiss Federal Supreme Court refused to temporarily suspend Pechstein's ban for the Olympics. The court has yet to rule on her full appeal, but stated that her complaint "likely won't succeed".^[4]

Pechstein filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against the International Skating Union, alleging trial fraud.^[5]

On February 19, 2010 the CAS ad-hoc panel at the Vancouver Olympics rejected Pechstein's last minute appeal to be admitted to the ice skating team events.^[6]

On March 15th, 2010 Gerhard Ehninger, head of the German Society for Hematology and Oncology, said that an evaluation of the case points to a light form of a blood anemia called spherocytosis - apparently inherited from her father. ^[7]

Skating record

References

See also

• List of multiple Winter Olympic medalists

External links

• Official website (German)
• Photos of Claudia Pechstein
• Claudia Pechstein at Olympic.org