Our guest on 22.02.2009 Jenny Wolf, Ice Speed Skater

Jenny Wolf of Berlin is the fastest woman in the world – at least on the ice – and the current face of international speed skating this winter. The 500 meters world record-holder won nearly every race in her class last season.

Jenny Wolf was born on January 31, 1979 in Berlin. She grew up in Berlin-Marzahn. She began ice speed skating at age 8. Early on, she had the ambition to compete at the Olympics. The 1988 Winter Games in Calgary were her wake-up call. Yet for a long time, she couldn’t distinguish herself in speed skating. At age 16, after deciding to concentrate on short-distance races, success found her.

At first, her parade distance was the 100 meters, which catapulted her to world-class status. Still, the stretch didn’t qualify as an Olympic event. Thus Wolf set out to conquer the 500 meters. Her daily training plan? Two stretches totalling five hours.

In the 2006/07 season she achieved a definitive breakthrough.On home ground, Wolf won two 500-meter races against a slate of elite athletes from around the world and in addition, set a world record.

Now, she is the fastest woman on the ice. With a time of 37.02 seconds, she holds the world record for the 500 meters. The ice speed skater at times exceeds speeds of 50 kilometers per hour and her trainer, Thomas Schubert, has a simple explanation: "She has incredible power in her legs; that’s why she’s so fast."

At the end of January 2009, she won the overall World Cup as her 39th victory to date, and she is the reigning 500 meters world champion.

Currently, she’s preparing for the World Cup finale in Salt Lake City in the USA, starting in March, and for the 2009 World Championships immediately afterwards in Vancouver in Canada.

As to life off the ice, Jenny Wolf has finished her literature studies at Berlin's Humboldt University, and lives with her boyfriend in the German capital. After the Winter Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver she plans to finally end her amazing ice speed skating career.