Six gold medals
Most successful German at the Winter Olympics: Natalie Geisenberger ends her tobogganing career
Natalie Geisenberger from Germany celebrates with her 2022 gold medal in China
© Robert Michael / DPA
Natalie Geisenberger hangs up the sled. The most successful German at the Winter Olympics is ending her career after 16 years and leaving a big gap in German tobogganing.
Germany’s most successful Winter Olympic participant Natalie Geisenberger is ending her exceptional sporting career after 16 years. “I have decided to end my career and am looking forward to the winter as a television athlete and passive sledding prospect,” said the 35-year-old six-time Olympic toboggan champion on Sunday in the “Blickpunkt Sport” program on BR television.
The Munich native, who competed in her first World Cup race in Altenberg in January 2007, leaves a big gap in German toboggan sport. Six Olympic gold medals, nine world championship titles and eight overall World Cup triumphs are part of her impressive career. In total, Geisenberger won 37 medals at international competitions, seven of which were Olympic, 16 at the World Championships and 14 at the European Championships. She also won 74 World Cup victories, 52 of which were individual.
“It was a mega, mega time. I was able to enjoy every second and celebrate successes. It was crazy! If someone had told me that in advance, I would have said: Never! Now I’m looking forward to the future. I think “For me, now was the perfect time to say: Thank you, that’s it!” said Geisenberger.
Natalie Geisenberger now has other priorities
Geisenberger crowned her career at the Winter Olympics in February 2022 when she won gold individually and with the team in Beijing – and became the most successful German athlete at the Winter Games with a total of six Olympic victories and a bronze medal.
Shortly after the Games she announced her second pregnancy. This January she became a mother for the second time: after son Leo in May 2020, daughter Lina made family happiness with husband Markus Scheer perfect. Geisenberger then left it open as to whether she would make another comeback and did not rule out another participation in the Olympics in 2026. But now she has other priorities.
Of her many successes, in addition to the home World Championships in 2016 at Königssee with two golds and one silver, she particularly remembers the individual Olympic victory in Beijing: “Coming to the finish line, seeing the number one and saying: ‘That’s possible.’ “Yes, not.” To crown this comeback with an Olympic victory was crazy.”