Katja Abel

Katja Abel
Personal information
Nationality:	Germany
discipline	Apparatus gymnastics
Society:	SC Berlin
Trainer:	Ulla Koch
Birthday:	April 8, 1983
Place of birth:	East Berlin
Size:	164 cm
Weight:	53 kg
Medals
European championships bronze 2006 Volos Leap

Katja Abel (born April 8, 1983 in East Berlin ) is a former German gymnast . She won a bronze medal in jumping at the European Championships in 2006 and was twice German all- around champion.

Life

Katja Abel, daughter of the silver medalist at the 1972 Olympic Games , Irene Abel , started gymnastics at Preussen Berlin when she was five . Here her mother was her first trainer.

In the third grade she went to the sports school in Berlin to train there under Jurij Robel. Three years later, coach Steffen Gödicke took over her support, who looked after her until she moved to Stuttgart in 2007.

Sporting successes

Successes among juniors (1996–1999)

In 1996 she had her first big success as German champion in all-around , in jumping and on the floor of age group (AG) 13. A year later, she won the all- around , jumping, uneven bars and balance beam titles in the 14th group . In 1998 the titles in the all-around and on uneven bars in the age group 15 were added. On the other devices she won the silver medal. With that she qualified for the Junior European Championship in St. Petersburg. Here she reached 7th place with the team and 13th place in the all-around competition. With the team, SC Berlin, she finished second in the Bundesliga in 1999. In the same year she developed back problems, which is why she was unable to compete for almost a year.

First successes among seniors (2000-2004)

In 2000 Abel started in the senior class for the first time and won the German jumping championship. In addition, you get three third places in the all-around competition, on the balance beam and on the uneven bars. This year she was also able to win the Bundesliga final with SC Berlin, where she reached third place in the individual ranking. The 2001 World Cup in Ghent brought her eighth place with the German ranks. At the German championships she won her first title in the all-around competition (together with Birgit Schweigert) as well as in jumping and on the uneven bars.

Abel injured himself in the run-up to the German Championships in 2002 and was unable to defend her title. Nevertheless, she was nominated for the individual equipment world championships in Debrecen , but here she was eliminated in the qualification, not least because of her poor condition.

In the following year, the pre-Olympic year 2003, Katja Abel was able to build on her great successes of 2001 and became German champion in the all-around competition as well as on the jump and uneven bars. The German Championships counted as the first elimination for the World Championships, which were about qualifying for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens . She was also able to win the second nomination competition and thus led the German squad at the World Championships in Anaheim . There the Olympic qualification goal was narrowly missed with 13th place by 0.04 points. Abel himself was only 68th in the individual ranking.

This meant that no German women's team was allowed to start in Athens. Nevertheless, Germany had secured two individual starting places in accordance with the Olympic regulations. However, Abel had to bury all hopes of being able to keep one of these starting positions after a training accident. On February 6, 2004, she fell from the uneven bars and fractured both forearms. She was operated on the same evening, and again 10 days later. This was followed by a lengthy rehabilitation phase in which "none of the doctors could tell her whether she would ever be able to do gymnastics properly again."

Comeback and renewed injuries (2005-2006)

It wasn't until the German Championships in May 2005, as part of the German Gymnastics Festival in her hometown of Berlin, that Abel did gymnastics again in front of an audience. She started at the balance beam. “This is the only device I can use for tricks, I can almost do without arms,” she said after her freestyle, which she finished to the enthusiastic applause of the 5000 spectators in the Velodrome.

The national coach was also impressed: “A gymnast with such incredible will, that would definitely be a boost for our team.” In autumn / winter 2005 Katja Abel again competed in the Bundesliga for her new team, the Tus Chemnitz-Altendorf. Initially only on the balance beam, then from the end of October 2005 again on the other devices. With her Bundesliga team she reached 2nd place in the Bundesliga final.

In March 2006 Abel returned to the international championship tournament in Cottbus after a long break . With 5th place on the vault, she also landed a remarkable placement here.

In April of the same year, he won the bronze medal in the jumping competition at the 2006 European Gymnastics Championships in Volos, which was the greatest international success to date. “Now I know for sure that the hard work was worth it!” With this, Abel won the first European Championship medal for German women's gymnastics again after 19 years.

But a short time later Katja Abel was hit again by bad luck with injuries. During gymnastics before the first qualifying exercise for the 2006 World Cup , she sustained a serious injury to her ankles and therefore had to be operated on again. So she could not take part in the 2006 World Cup or the German championships this year.

Olympic qualification and Olympic Games (2007-2008)

At the beginning of 2007, after surviving her foot injury, she moved to the Bundesliga team KTV Stuttgart. Here she trained with Kim Bui and Marie-Sophie Hindermann , supervised by Tamara Khokhlova.

In July 2007 Abel won the German championships in Giessen the title on the ground, silver on the balance beam and the jump as well as bronze in the all-around competition. Then the preparation for the Gymnastics World Championships 2007 in Stuttgart began . Abel was able to take 10th place in the team classification with the German team and thus qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

The 2008 Olympic year began with the European Championships in April in Clermont-Ferrand, France . Here the German squad, led by Katja Abel, did very well and ended up in 7th place.

In June 2008 Abel won the national titles on the uneven bars and on the balance beam, was second on the floor and jumping and third in the all-around competition. It was then for the Olympic Games of Beijing nominated.

There she finished 12th with the team and thus retired early. Katja Abel, who was not in full strength due to a slight foot injury, was ranked 40th in the qualification.

In addition to the sports career

Katja Abel was accepted into the sports promotion group of the Bundeswehr in 2003 and completed a shortened basic military service in October / November 2003. In the TV series Hello Uncle Doc! Katja Abel had a guest appearance, she played the gymnast Laura there.

Abel began studying biology and sports in Stuttgart in 2007.

After the active period (since 2009)

After the Olympic Games in 2008, Abel announced her retirement from active competitive sport and returned to her hometown Berlin. On January 11th, 2009 she was officially adopted as a competitive athlete.

Abel broke off her studies in sports and biology after the Olympic Games and moved to the Technical University of Ilmenau to study applied media studies.

In the spring of 2009, she agreed to play for the team from Stuttgart in the Bundesliga again after another Bundesliga gymnast there was injured.

Web links

• Abel at Gymbox
• Report about Katja Abel at Gymmedia
• Katja Abel in the database of the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ GYMedia.de: Katja Abel: The best friends: bars and bars . Retrieved March 10, 2010.
2. ↑ Berliner Morgenpost , December 30, 2005
3. ↑ Berliner Morgenpost, May 20, 2005
4. ↑ Berliner Morgenpost, 1./2. May 2006
5. ↑ ^{a b c} GYMedia.de: Katja Abel - Berlin's last Olympic gymnast ( memento of the original from November 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved March 10, 2010
6. ↑ Munzinger Archive, edition 17/2005