Michaela Fuchs (cyclist)

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Michaela Fuchs Road cycling
To person
Date of birth 18th December 1969
date of death May 8, 2018
nation GermanyGermany Germany
discipline Rail (Paracycling) - Class B
Societies)
RC Charlottenburg
Most important successes
Summer Paralympics
2000 Gold medal IPC 1994-2004.svg Sprint - Mixed Tandem
2000 Silver medal IPC 1994-2004.svg 1000-meter time trial - mixed tandem
Winter Paralympics
1994 Silver medal IPC 1994-2004.svg biathlon relay
Last updated: March 8, 2019

Michaela Fuchs (born December 18, 1969 in Alpirsbach ; † May 8, 2018 ) was a German disabled athlete who was active in paracycling and skiing . As a visually impaired , she started cycling in class B. She was one of the "most successful para-cyclists of her time".

Athletic career

Michaela Fuchs was born with an inherited metabolic disorder, albinism , which affected her eyesight . Most recently, she was almost blind with eyesight of three percent. She grew up with two siblings on a farm in the Black Forest . Her parents had problems dealing with her disability and left the daughter to herself, which is why she had to learn at an early age to assert herself. That's why she discovered sport as a teenager.

She began her sporting career as a cross-country skier with a companion . At the age of 18, she entered the 1988 Winter Paralympics in Innsbruck in her first international competition. At the 1994 Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer , Norway , she won silver in the biathlon season with Martina Willing and Susanne Ischinger .

From 1994 to 2004, Fuchs also enjoyed national and international success as a cyclist on track and road . In 2000 she won three medals on the tandem at the Summer Paralympics in Sydney : gold in the sprint and silver in the time trial together with driver Jan Ratzke on the track and silver with Eva Fünfgeld in the time trial on the road. In 2003, her streak of success with Ratzke ended when the International Paralympic Committee decided not to allow mixed-sex tandems to compete. Then Fuchs did not find a partner with whom she harmonized.

Between 1996 and 2007 Michaela Fuchs also won several German cycling championships on track and road with Jan Ratzke and various female pilots.

Michaela Fuchs carried the flag of the German team at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Paralympics . In the same year, she came in tenth in the election for Sportswoman of the Year , but was annoyed: “The Paralympics were not mentioned at all. We handicapped people all sat in a block in the studio, it was totally cold in our corner and the camera blocked our view. "

Michaela Fuchs died in 2018 at the age of 48.

Personal and professional

Michaela Fuchs attends a boarding school for the visually impaired and blind and graduated from secondary school . On a regular school she reached the high school and began training as a teacher . In order to do the Abitur , she moved to Berlin and attended the Charlotte-Wolff-Kolleg , then she trained as a curative teacher and finally as a riding therapist .

In summer 2009, Fox was riding her Appaloosa - Wallach Diamond and her guide dog Rex in 30 days 800 kilometer route from her home Rötenberg to Berlin. So that she didn't get lost, she had a navigation device with her that showed her the direction using voice commands.

successes

Cycling

train

1998
  • silverWorld Championship - 1000 meter time trial (with Jan Ratzke )
  • bronzeWorld Championship - Sprint (with Jan Ratzke )
1999
  • goldEuropean champion - sprint, 1000 meter time trial (with Jan Ratzke )
2000
  • goldEuropean Champion - Sprint Time Trial (with Jan Ratzke )
  • bronzeEuropean Champion - 1000 m time trial (with Jan Ratzke )
2002
  • silverWorld Championship - Sprint (with Jan Ratzke )
  • bronzeWorld Championship - 1000 meter time trial (with Jan Ratzke )

Street

2000
2002

ski

1994

literature

  • 125 years of cycling in Charlottenburg , ed. v. RC Charlottenburg, Berlin 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Many questions for the Olympic champion. In: bo.de. March 16, 2007, accessed January 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Obituary Michaela Fuchs. In: osp-berlin.de. June 11, 2018, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Astrid Winterfeld: Blind, so what? Living with disabilities. In: seinsart-magazin.de. October 2, 2016, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b As a racing cyclist, she sees it too! In: emma.de. March 1, 2004, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Doreen Mechsner: The end of a dream tandem. In: morgenpost.de. June 14, 2003, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Disabled Sports: Medals for the Motor. In: tagesspiegel.de . January 3, 2001, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Michaela Fuchs's obituary notice. In: trauer.schwarzwaelder-bote.de. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Fuchs, Michaela
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paracycler
DATE OF BIRTH 18th December 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Alpirsbach
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 2018