Gabriele Kohlisch (born 7 December 1963) is a German luger and

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

der who competed from the mid-1980s to 1997 in luge, then from 1998 to the early 2000s in

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

. She is one of only two people to win World Championship gold medals in both bobsledding and luge, the other being fellow German

Susi Erdmann Susi-Lisa Erdmann (later Plankensteiner, born 29 January 1968) is an East German-German luger and bobsledder who competed from 1977 to 1998 in luge, then since 1999 in bobsleigh. She was born in Blankenburg, Bezirk Magdeburg. Competing in five W ...

. She was born in

Karl-Marx-Stadt Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany ...

(modern Chemnitz) and initially competed for

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Luge career

Kohlisch won ten medals at the

FIL World Luge Championships The FIL World Luge Championships, part of the International Luge Federation (FIL) have taken place on an almost annual basis in non-Winter Olympics years since 1955. These championships are shown for artificial tracks. See FIL World Luge Natural ...

, including six golds (Women's singles:

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, 1995; Mixed team:

, 1991, 1993, 1995) and four silvers (Women's singles: 1987, 1991, 1993; Mixed team: 1996). She also won three medals at the

FIL European Luge Championships The FIL European Luge Championships, part of the International Luge Federation (FIL) have taken place since 1914. From 1914 to 1934, these championships were part of the Internationaler Schlittensportsverband (ISSV - International Sled Sport Federat ...

, including two silvers (Women's singles: 1996; Mixed team: 1994) and one bronze (Women's singles: 1994). Kohlisch competed in two

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

for the reunified

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the women's singles event, finishing sixth in both 1992 and 1994. Kohilsch retired from luge in 1997, mainly to the competitiveness among her fellow German teammates, most notably

Jana Bode Jana Bode (born 1 March 1969) is a German former luger who competed from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. Born in Rochlitz, she won five medals at the FIL World Luge Championships, including one gold (Women's singles: 199 ...

, Erdmann,

Silke Kraushaar Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (born Silke Kraushaar on 10 October 1970 in Sonneberg, Thuringia) is a German luger who competed from 1995 to 2008. In June 2008, she was named sports manager for the luge section of Bob- und Schlittenverband für Deutsc ...

, Barbara Niedernhuber, and Sylke Otto. She won the

Luge World Cup The Luge World Cup season is a yearly competition first organized by the International Luge Federation The International Luge Federation ( French: Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL); German: Internationaler Rennrodelverband) is ...

overall title in women's singles in 1993-4.

Bobsleigh career

Kohlisch switched to bobsleigh in 1998, competing at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since 1930. Starting with 2002, championships of non-Winter Olympi ...

. She won the gold medal in the debut two-woman event at the 2000 FIBT World Championships in Winterberg,

. She tried out for the German bobsleigh team to compete at the

2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 ( arp, Niico'ooowu' 2002; Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; nv, Sooléí 2002; Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), was an internation ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, but finished third behind Erdmann and

Sandra Prokoff Sandra Kiriasis ( Prokoff; born 4 January 1975 in Dresden) is a German former bobsledder who has competed from 2000 to 2014. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City she won silver in the two-woman event together with teammate Ulrike Holzn ...

(

Sandra Kiriasis Sandra Kiriasis ( Prokoff; born 4 January 1975 in Dresden) is a German former bobsledder who has competed from 2000 to 2014. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City she won silver in the two-woman event together with teammate Ulrike Holzn ...

since late 2004).

Other activities

Kohlisch now serves as a spokesperson for the

International Luge Federation The International Luge Federation ( French: Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL); German: Internationaler Rennrodelverband) is the main international federation for all luge sports. Founded by 13 nations at Davos, Switzerland in ...

and has served as a spokesperson for the German luge team since the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in the ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

. She is also responsible for physical education at

Naval Academy Mürwik A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includ ...

(Marineschule Mürwik), the German Naval Academy in Flensburg-

Mürwik Mürwik ( da, Mørvig) is a community of Flensburg in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Situated on the east side of the Flensburg Firth, it is on the Angeln peninsula. Mürwik is the location of the Naval Academy at Mürwik, w ...

, Germany.

References

1992 luge women's singles results

Hickok sports information on World champions in luge and skeleton.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20111105063305/http://sports123.com/bob/ww-2.html Sports 123 results on World champions in 2-Woman bobsleighbr>SportQuick.com information on World champions in luge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohlisch, Gabriele 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Chemnitz German female bobsledders German female lugers Lugers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Olympic lugers for Germany 20th-century German women People from Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt East German female lugers