Anni Friesinger, born in Bad Reichenhall near Inzell, has been one of the best female speed skaters since her junior age.

She was the World Junior Champion 1996, after placing 2nd the two previous years. She made her debut in an allround championship at only 17 years, placing 5th in the World Championships 1994. She won her first senior title in 1998 by winning the World Single Distance Championships 1500 m. She lost most of the 1999-season because of a bad back injury. In 2000 she was back and won the European title, beating her teammate Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann by a margin of 0.026 points, even though Gunda set a new World Record on the finishing 5000 m. In 2001 she was injured during a fall on 1500 m in the European Ch., but she came back to win her first World title, once again beating one of her teammates by a small margin, as Claudia Pechstein placed 2nd - 0.101 points behind Friesinger. In the European Ch. 2002 there was really no doubt, she won 3 distances and the title with a large margin.

She was the favourite for at least three gold medals at the 2002 Olympics. After a disappointing 4th place on the initial 3000 m and a 5th place on 1000 m she finally won an Olympic gold medal on the 1500 m, taking 0.36 seconds off her own World Record and beating her teammate Sabine Völker by almost a full second. On the finishing 5000 m she disappointed once more, placing 6th.

The following years she won most of the championships in which she participated. She had a troublesome Olympic season of 2006. A bronze medal on the 1000 m was her only individual medal in Torino, but she was a part of the German team, winning the first Olympic team pursuit competition.

After winning 8 allround chamionships titles, she chose to withdraw from he European championships in 2007, cocentrating on the Worlds sprints at Hamar one week later. After winning both 1000 metres, she won the sprint title easily, becoming the first woman since Karin Kania-Enke to win both the World Allround and Sprint Championships.

Anni Friesinger comes from a family of speed skaters. Her mother, Jana Korowicka, was a Polish speed skater, taking part in the Olympic Games in Innsbruck 1976, less than a year before giving birth to Anni. She placed 16th on the 3000 m as her best result. Her father, Georg Friesinger, competed at the 1973 World Junior Championships. He died of a stroke in 1996, and his death was hard on Anni. Her younger brother, Jan Friesinger, and sister, Agnes Friesinger, are also speed skaters at an international level.

She has been coached by Markus Eicher, former German skater. Before the 2007-season former Dutch World and Olympic champion Gianni Romme took over the coaching of Anni Friesinger.

#1 on the Adelskalender: 9 March 2001 - 21 December 2001

By Bjarte Hetland, last updated January 21, 2007