She was the first German Hawaii winner. But only for a few weeks. On October 16, 2004, triathlete Nina Kraft was the first to cross the finish line on the legendary Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona, it was a strange picture. The woman from Brunswick, actually at the goal of all dreams, seemed impassive, no overflowing happiness could be seen. It soon became clear why. She was convicted of doping with Epo and lost her title. A wave of indignation followed.
Nina Kraft made no excuses against her, but a clear confession. She knowingly doped, yes, and she was ashamed of it at the moment of victory. After that, their hitherto ideal world collapsed. “It was the worst for me to tell my brother and my parents about it,” she said in an interview with the magazine “tri-mag” in 2007, the only one that has survived. “A world has collapsed for them. Only then did I understand what I was doing. I barricaded myself in my apartment and kept trying to numb my feelings. My parents were really afraid for me during this time. “
Nina Kraft was banned for one year in 2004, went into psychiatric treatment and started triathlon again in 2005. She won five other, smaller, Ironman races, but avoided public appearances away from the racing courses.
Nina Kraft retired to Florida, lived in Clermont, a small town of 40,000 that she knew from training camps. She was there in the triathlon and running scene and tried her hand as a personal trainer.
Nina Kraft died last Sunday under previously unexplained circumstances. She was 51 years old. “The sun sank before evening” is written above the obituary with which her family in Braunschweig said goodbye. The burial should take place in the closest family circle. The friends in Clermont have announced an evening of remembrance and farewell for September 7th – “with a short program and a long run – exactly as she would have wanted”.
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