Torsten Abel (born 2 January 1974 in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

) is a former German

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the d ...

who later competed for the United States.

Athletic career

Triathlon since 1991

Abel was born in

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

, Berlin, grew up in

Weiler-Simmerberg Weiler-Simmerberg is a market town in the Swabian Lindau district. Geography Being located in the Westallgäu, the market town is bordering on the region of the Bregenz Forest, part of the Austrian administrative region of Vorarlberg. The ''Ha ...

and contested his first triathlon in 1991. From 1992 to 1997 he started in the Bayern squad and from 1994 for the German junior team. Abel competed for Germany in several

ITU Triathlon World Cup The World Triathlon Cup is an annual series of triathlon races staged around the world. The series is organised by the World Triathlon, the world governing body of the sport. Inaugurated in 1991, the World Cup began as an attempt to create a regular ...

races from 2000 to 2002 and finished fifth in the European Triathlon Cup rankings in 2001. In 2005 he started for the first time in the long-distance triathlon ( swimming, cycling and running) in

Roth, Bavaria Roth (formerly ''Roth bei Nürnberg'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany, the capital of the Roth (district), Roth District. It is located about 25 km south of Nuremberg. History The town was first mentioned in documents in the year 1060, but se ...

. Since 2006 he has also worked as a coach and trainer.

Personal

Abel was married to triathlete Leanda Cave, whom he met at a triathlon in Portugal in 1999 and coached for several years. They married in summer 2010 and moved to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. The couple were separated as of February 2013. He lives in San Francisco.

Sporting achievements

References

External links

* * * * 1974 births Living people American male triathletes German male triathletes Sportspeople from Berlin Sportspeople from San Francisco Sportspeople from Tucson, Arizona {{Germany-triathlon-bio-stub