Pechstein to take role as Germany speed skating coach in all-round

Five-time Olympic speed skating champion Claudia Pechstein will take the role of Germany coach in the all-round discipline until the end of the year, the German speed skating and short track body (DESG) said.

She will hold the post in addition to her primary role as training centre coach in Inzell in the state of Bavaria.

"The decision gives the association and German speed skating certainty through the end of the year. Until then, we have enough time to conduct a proper selection process and choose the coaches who will lead our athletes to the 2030 Olympics," said DESG president and Pechstein's husband Matthias Große.

Pechstein succeeds Alexis Contin, who is set to oversee the development of the national team in his home country France with an eye on the 2030 Winter Olympics on home soil.

Contin found himself unwittingly in the spotlight at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan after speed skater Fridtjof Petzold spoke of a broken relationship with the coach.

The DESG has been struggling with other controversies recently.

An ARD report at the start of the Winter Olympics in February alleged there were irregularities at the association and a strained relationship between some athletes and the leadership.

The DESG banned two ARD journalists from a post-Olympics press conference and took the German broadcaster to court, where only one part of the reporting was deemed to be incorrect in a ruling in April.