Three-time Olympic champion Anni Friesinger-Postma is the glamor girl of speed skating. When he became embroiled in a public dispute with Claudia Pechstein, the race was watched by ten million Germans. Here he recalls and reports on his new life.
In her most famous moment, Anni Friesinger-Postma was on the ice. At the end, the speed skater hits the frozen ground with his fist. He thought his fall had cost him his place in the 2010 Olympic final in Vancouver. With Daniela Anschütz-Thoms and Stephanie Beckert, she took a clear lead in the semifinals against the United States, but Friesinger-Postma stumbled in the final lap.
“It happened in the second to last corner,” he said. “The rink was new. The bottom was hard, but on top there was a more porous layer. With my dynamic skating style, I broke through it.”
As his teammates ran away, he shouted at them, “Stop!” after. “But because of the noise, they didn’t hear me and didn’t look around,” Friesinger-Postma said. “In the last few meters I was desperate and exhausted, so I fell.”
He slid on his stomach across the ice toward the finish line. He tried to stretch his right leg. “It was an experience,” Friesinger-Postma said. “The runner’s end and the transponder are counted at the ankle. If I crossed the finish line with my hands first, there would be a time penalty. So I tried to turn. That’s what I thought.”
“I try to get something positive out of everything”
In the end, he didn’t know if it was enough. “The uncertainty is incredible,” he said. “I think I screwed it up for my team.” Then first place appeared on the scoreboard – by 23 hundredths of a second. The camera trained on Friesinger-Postma when she could smile again. “This liberating moment is truly beautiful!” he said. “Actually, falling is a negative thing, but I try to get something positive out of everything – and here it is: don’t give up!”
There was frequent drama at Friesinger-Postma – due to injuries and conflicts. But he captivates his fans with his emotional and open nature. The full physical effort paid off then: Katrin Mattscherodt ran to the Olympic final, as previously planned, instead of Friesinger-Postma, and Germany won the gold medal against Japan.
It was Friesinger-Postma’s third victory at the Olympics, after the 1500 meters in 2002 and the team event in 2006. He also collected 16 world titles. Friesinger-Postma called the first Olympic victory “the coolest” and “the most beautiful gold – at my favorite distance.”
As usual, there’s lots of drama. “I’ve won everything before,” he said. “Then there was a dispute with Claudia Pechstein. We fought hard against each other. I’m the type of person who doesn’t back down. If something bothers me, I say it.”
It all started at the European All-Around Championships in Erfurt in early January 2002. Friesinger-Postma won ahead of Pechstein. “I’m happy, and these moans and groans come from him,” he said. “When I criticized him in public, he didn’t like it. Many other athletes praised me because someone said it. And then: Bam! The backlash came. It was my honesty at the wrong time.”
“He often opens his mouth without thinking.”
Pechstein was bothered by the fact that his competitors said that “he couldn’t have been that sick” because he was the fastest in the 5,000 meters. Berliners took this as a major blow and accused Friesinger-Postma of making too much of a show and said: “He often opens his mouth without thinking.”
At the 2002 Olympics in February, there were headlines about “Zickenzoff” everywhere. “None of this is made up,” Friesinger-Postma said. “We both really don’t like each other. It all takes a lot of energy out of me. I don’t really need it.”
At first things didn’t go well for Friesinger-Postma at the Winter Olympics: fourth place behind Olympic champion Pechstein in the 3000 meters and fifth place in the 1000 meters. “It was bittersweet,” he recalled. The pressure is getting bigger. There was a gold medal in the 1500 meters in a world record time (1:54.02 minutes; D. Red.) is also a victory over myself and all critics. As an Olympic champion, you will make yourself immortal!”
At the 2006 Olympics in Turin, the two rivals teamed up professionally in the team event and defeated Canada in the final. “We agree with that,” Friesinger-Postma said. “We were able to pull ourselves together. Everyone knows that from work life. But we were never close. But that’s OK too.” Over the years the two have encountered each other at events such as the 2024 World Cup in Inzell. “But we have nothing to do with each other,” Friesinger-Postma said. “He doesn’t need it, and neither do I.”
Ten million TV viewers watch speed skating
This rivalry had the positive side effect of more than ten million people watching the duel on television. Friesinger-Postma became the glamor girl of speed skating, with high-paying advertising and photo shoot contracts: “I was on the cover of Time Magazine at the time, I was proud of that,” she says. “During shooting, I was sometimes allowed to take on different roles, sometimes wearing more, sometimes less. I enjoyed it.”
“Playboy” asked several times about nude photo shoots. “I never show it all,” Friesinger-Postma said. “That’s important for me. Their photo series is good, but for me it’s an excessive step that I don’t want to take. My body is my capital, but it’s the most important thing when it comes to sports.”
In 2010 he had to end his career. The frequently damaged right knee no longer functions and the cartilage is damaged. “I’m very flexible, but this puts a lot of pressure on my joints,” explained the Olympic champion. “I have very small kneecaps and a lot of muscle. This always puts a lot of pressure on the cartilage.”
He had his first surgery there in 2002. “Part of my patellar tendon died,” he recalled. “Dr. Volker Smasal cut it, split the patellar tendon and stitched it back together. Afterwards, when I won another World Championship race, he said: ‘This is amazing!'” The next knee operation was in 2008. In the final year of his career, 2010, he was no longer running smoothly: “My knee was sore because there was a piece of loose cartilage in it. I had to be stabbed again and again.”
Friesinger-Postma plays ice hockey
He currently suffers from severe osteoarthritis in his knees, but he can ski and bike. “I ride a gravel bike, I don’t have an e-bike yet,” he said: “I play ice hockey occasionally.” He started several years ago on a mixed team in Gmunden, Austria. She currently plays defender for the Inzell Lady Hawks in the amateur hobby league. “It’s more like a housewife’s speed,” he said: “Of course I’m still fast, I can also run backwards well, which is important in defence. The kicking is quite good. I also collect penalty minutes, I’m a tough player and I’m not capable of any duels.”
He came to ice hockey through his daughters: Josephine (14) plays at U15, Elisabeth (11) at U13 at Red Bull Salzburg in the mixed youth Bundesliga. Both defenders are German, but “ice hockey Austrians” who play for the Alpine republic national team. “Of course they skate very well on the ice and are in very good shape,” said the proud mother, who passed on her good genes to her husband, Ids, who is also a speed skater.
Friesinger-Postma lives in Salzburg and during holidays in the Netherlands, where her husband runs a farm in Dearsum. “We have 700 cows,” he said. In his native Austria, the Olympic champion runs a children’s and women’s fashion and accessories shop in Münzgasse. She is also building a house with her husband in Salzburg. “Near the ice rink, of course,” he said with a laugh.
This article was written for the Sports Competence Center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and was first published in SPORT BILD.
