Silke Kraushaar-Pielach (born Silke Kraushaar on 10 October 1970 in

Sonneberg Sonneberg in Thuringia, Germany, is the seat of the Sonneberg district. It is in the Franconian south of Thuringia, neighboring its Upper Franconian twin town Neustadt bei Coburg. Sonneberg became known as the "world toy city", and is home to ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

) is a German

luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh for s ...

r who competed from 1995 to 2008. In June 2008, she was named sports manager for the

section of

Bob- und Schlittenverband für Deutschland German Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Federation (german: Bob- und Schlittenverband für Deutschland e.V., BSD) is the official federation for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton in Germany. It is the German representative both to the International Bobslei ...

(BSD - German

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 ...

, luge, and

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

federation).

Sporting career

Competing in three

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 ...

, Kraushaar-Pielach won a complete set of medals in the women's singles event with a gold in 1998 (when she beat her team-mate Barbara Niedernhuber by 2 thousandths of a second), a silver in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, and a bronze in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. She also 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 T ...

with four golds (Women's singles:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, Mixed team:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

), four silvers (Women's singles: 2000, 2001; Mixed team:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

), and two bronze (Women's singles: 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

). Kraushaar-Pielach won ten 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 seven golds (Women's singles: 1998,

; Mixed team: 1998,

, 2004, 2006) and three silvers (Women's singles:

, 2002,

). She also won the overall

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 ...

five times (1998-9, 2000-1, 2001-2, 2005-6, 2006-7). Kraushaar-Pielach started her last season off with a win in the women's singles event at

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

on 16 November 2007. Her last race in

Sigulda Sigulda (; german: Segewold, pl, Zygwold, russian: Сигулда) is a town in the Vidzeme region of Latvia, from the capital city Riga. Overview Sigulda is on a picturesque stretch of the primeval Gauja river valley. Because of the reddish Dev ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

on 16 February 2008 saw her finishing third, the same place where she won her first World Cup event on 30 November 1996.

Sports official

In June 2008, Kraushaar-Pielach was named manager of the luge section of the BSD, the German bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton federation.

Personal life

She married German businessman Michael Pielach on 7 July 2006. It was announced on FIL's website on 24 January 2008 that the sled that she had competed with until 1995 had been auctioned on the German version of

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

from 19 to 26 January. Kraushaar-Pielach stated that the proceeds from the auction would be used to benefit young luge. The sled sold for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

1160 and the proceeds went to her sledding club in Oberhof.

References

FIL-Luge August 21, 2006 article on Kraushaar's marriage
- accessed November 24, 2007.

- Accessed January 24, 2008. *[http://www.fil-luge.org/news/news-detail/article/proceeds-of-1160-euro-for-young-luge-talents.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=45&cHash=c2515599cc FIL-Luge January 31, 2008 article on Kraushaar-Pielach's sled being sold.] - Accessed January 31, 2008.
FIL-Luge November 16, 2007 on Kraushaar-Pielach's victory starting her farewell tour.
- accessed February 16, 2008. *[http://www.fil-luge.org/news/news-detail/article/silke-kraushaar-pielach-now-luge-manager-for-german-federation.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=45&cHash=185ec57060 FIL-Luge June 2, 2008 article on Kraushaar-Pielach's transition from athlete to sports official.] - accessed June 13, 2008.
FIL-Luge profile
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Official website
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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kraushaar-Pielach, Silke 1970 births Living people German female lugers Olympic lugers of Germany Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic silver medalists for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in luge Lugers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Lugers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics People from Sonneberg Sportspeople from Thuringia