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Lisa Brennauer after Olympic gold in Tokyo, 2021
Photo:
Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
Exactly one year after her biggest triumph, Olympic champion Lisa Brennauer announced the end of her cycling career.
»I decided to end the active part of my career after the European Championships in Munich.
You don't make a decision like this overnight, it's part of a longer thought process," said the 34-year-old.
Brennauer was five times world champion on the road in various disciplines, won silver four times and bronze twice.
She celebrated the greatest success of her career on August 3, 2021 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, when she raced to gold with Franziska Brauße, Mieke Kröger and Lisa Klein in the team pursuit in a world record time.
Last year, the sports soldier from Kempten in the Allgäu also won two world championship titles on the track in the individual and team pursuit.
All in all, Brennauer has won 24 medals at world and European championships in her career so far.
Together with her Bahn-Four colleagues, she was also named "Germany's Team of the Year" last year.
“I'll definitely stop at the peak.
And I'm really passionate about sport.
That was really important to me," Brennauer told the sports information service SID.
»Lisa was always the driving force in the team, whether on the track or on the road.
What she did, the others copied.
Lisa is collegial, always fair, always straight forward,« said national coach André Korff in recognition of the exceptional athlete.
Rudolf Scharping, President of the Federation of German Cyclists (BDR), added: "Lisa Brennauer is and will remain a great ambassador for German cycling beyond her active time."
In Munich she is at the start again
Brennauer will contest her last competitions as part of the European Championships in Munich (11th to 21st August).
In the Bavarian state capital, the woman from the Allgäu has planned both starts on the track and on the road.
Recently, Brennauer has also increasingly advocated better pay for women in competitive sports.
On the subject of equal pay, she said: »It would be desirable.
At the moment the differences are gigantic, regardless of whether it concerns salaries or prize money.
You don't need to make any comparisons.«
For example, she complains that the women at the Tour de France femmes this year, in which she also competed, rode a third of the distance of the men, but only received a tenth of the prize money.
kjo/dpa/sid