German track cyclist Kristina Vogel learned she is paralyzed after a June training crash, according to Der Spiegel.
“It is s---, there’s no other way to put it,” Vogel said, according to a Reuters translation. “No matter how you package it, I can’t walk anymore.
“But I believe that the sooner you accept a new situation, the sooner you learn to deal with it,”
Vogel, a 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist, had suffered a spine injury in a June 26 crash in Cottbus.
The DPA news agency reported that she fell onto a concrete track following a high-speed collision with another cyclist.
The German Cycling Federation (BDR) said Vogel had been training with Pauline Grabosch, and that she accelerated when Grabosch left the track - only to collide with another unidentified cyclist who entered suddenly.
Vogel, 27 and an 11-time world champion, also had a serious accident in May 2009, when she was knocked off her bike by a vehicle. She suffered severe injuries and was placed in an artificial coma for two days.
But she returned three years later to win the team sprint for Germany with Miriam Welte at the London Olympics. Vogel became the first German to win gold in the sprint in Rio four years later despite a broken saddle.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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