Natalie Simanowski
{{Short description|German cyclist (born 1978)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name = Natalie Simanowski
| nickname =
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| nationality =
| sport = Paralympic cycling
|disability = Spinal cord injury
|disability_class = LC3
| event =
| club =
| coach =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1978|7|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = Lingen, Lower Saxony, West Germany
| residence =
| retired=
| death_date =
| death_place =
| height =
| weight =
| pb =
| medaltemplates =
{{Medal|Sport|Paralympic cycling}}
{{Medal|Country|{{GER}}}}
{{Medal|Competition|Paralympic Games}}
{{Medal|Silver|2008 Beijing|500m time trial LC3-4}}
{{Medal|Silver|2008 Beijing|Individual pursuit LC3-4}}
{{Medal|Competition|World Road Championships}}
{{Medal|Gold|2006 Aigle|Time trial LC3-4, CP3}}
{{Medal|Gold|2007 Bordeaux|Time trial LC3-4}}
{{Medal|Silver|2007 Bordeaux|Road race LC3/4}}
{{Medal|Bronze|2006 Aigle|Road race LC3/4, CP3}}
{{Medal|Competition|World Track Championships}}
{{Medal|Gold|2006 Aigle|Road time trial LC3-4, CP3}}
{{Medal|Gold|2006 Aigle|Road time trial LC3}}
{{Medal|Gold|2007 Bordeaux|Individual pursuit LC3}}
{{Medal|Bronze|2007 Bordeaux|500m time trial LC3}}
}}
Natalie Simanowski (born 20 July 1978) is a German retired Paralympic cyclist who competed at international elite competitions. She is a triple world champion in cycling and a double Paralympic silver medalist. Simanowski was a former middle-distance runner.
Early life
Stabbing incident
On 25 June 2003, Simanowski had finished work at a hospital outpatient department in Munich and she ran to her car to put her work documents in the boot of her car. As she opened the boot, she was attacked by someone described as "a psychopath" who stabbed her twice in the spinal cord between her eleventh and twelfth thoracic vertebrae and narrowly missed her left lung with a butcher's knife. This caused her to have an incomplete spinal cord injury.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=16 May 2020 |title=Natalie Simanowski – What This Is (in German) |url=https://amp.what-this-is.com/3831588/1/natalie-simanowski.html |url-status=live |archive-date=15 July 2021 |access-date= |website=what this is.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715171106/https://amp.what-this-is.com/3831588/1/natalie-simanowski.html }}{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=8 September 2008 |title=The second life of Natalie Simanowski (in German) |url=https://www.welt.de/welt_print/article2410606/Das-zweite-Leben-der-Natalie-Simanowski.html |url-status=live |archive-date=15 July 2021 |access-date= |newspaper=Die Welt |last1=Dunker |first1=Robert |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715171057/https://www.welt.de/welt_print/article2410606/Das-zweite-Leben-der-Natalie-Simanowski.html }}
The perpetrator of the knife attack was caught by the police three days later. He was diagnosed with schizophrenic psychosis as a result of drug abuse and had voices in his head telling him to kill a woman which was his motive for the attack on Simanowski. When questioned by police, the attacker said that after the incident he went back to an apartment in the city centre and went to sleep.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=22 September 2009 |title=He was too cowardly to look at me (in German) |url=https://www.spox.com/de/sport/mehrsport/0909/Artikel/natalie-simanowski-paralympics-psychopath-london-2012.html |url-status=live |archive-date=15 July 2021 |access-date= |website=spox.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715171057/https://www.spox.com/de/sport/mehrsport/0909/Artikel/natalie-simanowski-paralympics-psychopath-london-2012.html }}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=16 November 2013 |title=Right down to the core (in German) |url=https://www.focus.de/sport/mehrsport/radsport-bis-ins-mark_aid_387277.html |url-status=live |archive-date=15 July 2021 |access-date= |website=Online Focus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715171057/https://www.focus.de/sport/mehrsport/radsport-bis-ins-mark_aid_387277.html }}
Simanowski had a damaged spine and she lost the feeling in her lower limbs. She spent two years in hospital.{{Cite web |date=10 September 2008 |title=Simanowski gewinnt Silber im Bahnra d |url=https://www.fr.de/sport/sport-mix/simanowski-gewinnt-silber-bahnrad-11601366.html |access-date=16 July 2021 |website=www.fr.de |language=de |archive-date=16 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716150353/https://www.fr.de/sport/sport-mix/simanowski-gewinnt-silber-bahnrad-11601366.html |url-status=live }}
Cycling
After she got in contact with Adelbert Kromer, who was the national coach, she took up cycling and was soon training two hours each day. Simanowski refers to this change in her routine as her "second life".
In 2006 she was cycling at the 2006 IPC Cycling World Championships where she contested the time-trial and the road-race. She won the 16.8 km women's time trial Women for the LC3-4 – CP3 classification, beating Barbara Buchan of the US.{{Cite web |title=www.cyclingnews.com presents the 2006 UCI IPC Cycling World Championships |url=http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/sep06/ipc06/?id=results/ipc062 |access-date=16 July 2021 |website=autobus.cyclingnews.com |archive-date=16 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716143138/http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/sep06/ipc06/?id=results%2Fipc062 |url-status=live }}
In 2007 the German Disabled Sports Association recognised her achievement and announced that she and Mathias Mester were the Disabled Athletes of the Year.{{Cite web |title=DBS {{!}} DBS {{!}} Preisträger |url=https://www.dbs-npc.de/ehrungen-sportler-des-jahres-preistraeger.html |access-date=16 July 2021 |website=www.dbs-npc.de |archive-date=16 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716145013/https://www.dbs-npc.de/ehrungen-sportler-des-jahres-preistraeger.html |url-status=live }}
Simanowski is a triple World champion in cycling. She is a double Paralympic silver medallist at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing where she gained the medals in the time trail and the individual pursuit.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=15 July 2021 |title=Natalie Simanowski – IPC Profile |url=https://www.paralympic.org/natalie-simanowski |url-status=live |archive-date=15 July 2021 |access-date= |website=International Paralympic Committee |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715171057/https://www.paralympic.org/natalie-simanowski }}
She published her biography, Wieder Aufstehen, that she wrote with assistance in 2009.{{Cite book |last=Simanowski |first=Natalie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zjAfAwAAQBAJ&q=natalie-simanowski&pg=PP1 |title=Wieder Aufstehen: Die bewegende Geschichte einer Sportlerin, die sich nach einem Attentat an die Weltspitze kämpfte |date=17 April 2009 |publisher=MVG Verlag |isbn=978-3-86415-602-1 |language=de |access-date=28 August 2021 |archive-date=28 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828204037/https://books.google.com/books?id=zjAfAwAAQBAJ&q=natalie-simanowski&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simanowski, Natalie}}
Category:Paralympic cyclists for Germany
Category:German female cyclists
Category:German female middle-distance runners
Category:German stabbing survivors
Category:Cyclists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
Category:Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
Category:Cyclists from Lower Saxony
Category:20th-century German women