Sports Joachim Franke
Five Olympic victories – Claudia Pechstein’s gold coach died
Status: 20.03.2024 | Reading time: 2 minutes
“Not without my trainer”: Claudia Pechstein with her successful coach
Source: picture-alliance/dpa/Franz_Peter_Tschauner
Joachim Franke is dead. The speed skating coach died at the age of 83. His athletes became world champions a total of 23 times. Claudia Pechstein alone won five Olympic victories and six World Cup titles under the charismatic coach.
He was one of the most successful coaches in the world. Now Joachim Franke is dead at the age of 83. The former coach of speed skating star Claudia Pechstein died on Tuesday in a nursing home in Bernau near Berlin. Franke had been living in the home for a long time, but was recently transferred to different clinics due to pneumonia. On Saturday the successful coach had a visit from a close friend. By then he was feeling so bad that Franke no longer recognized his friend.
“He was everything to me. Shaped me and made me a world star. I owe him everything. Take care, coach. May heaven have a nice place for you. RIP,” Pechstein said in an association statement.
Franke was an ice hockey player (winger) in the GDR from 1954 to 1968. He later became both an ice hockey and speed skating coach. In the meantime, he was also assistant coach of the GDR national ice hockey team alongside head coach Joachim Ziesche.
Franke’s athletes had a gold subscription
Franke looked after Claudia Pechstein for 16 years and shaped her into a winter sports legend. Under him, the 52-year-old won five Olympic victories and six world championship titles from 1994 to 2006. Franke said in an interview in 2005 about his work: “All of these successes are based on our wonderful cooperation.”
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Pechstein once said about Franke: “It’s the case that I can’t actually live without my coach.” In addition to Pechstein, Franke also coached the two-time Olympic champion Uwe-Jens Mey and the Olympic champions André Hoffmann and Olaf Zinke. In total, his athletes became world champions 23 times.
“The DESG family is in deep mourning and salutes the life’s work of an extraordinary trainer. Our thoughts are with his family and wish them a lot of strength in these difficult times,” said Matthias Große, President of the German Speed Skating Association (DESG).
