[ad_1]
Katherine Jessie Jean Allen was born on April 25, 1970 in Geelong, a port city in South Australia, and grew up on a sheep farm in the Melbourne area. Her parents encouraged her to play sports at a young age, she said she regularly ran the roughly three kilometers to school and participated in running competitions as a child. Allen won some young titles and was considered a promising talent. When she was eleven years old, she discovered her passion for gymnastics, which continues to this day, but soon realized that she had started too late and lacked mobility. After graduating from school, she trained as a qualified nurse.
She couldn’t have known that sport would again play such an important role in her life when she and her four friends embarked on a world tour in 1995, also stopping at Kitzbühel. There, the 25-year-old earned her money to travel to a bar and went, not to put on weight, to swim in the indoor pool. There he met Marcel Diechtler and became friends with the 18-year-old Austrian triathlete.
Quick rise to the top of the world
In the summer of 1996, Diechtler persuaded her to do her first triathlon, finishing fourth at Kirchbichl and promising it was the first and last three-way fight. After just three weeks, Allen got neat and started thinking about triathlon training after a period of reflection. In 1999 she married Diechtler, the following year she made her breakthrough with ten career victories. After completing the European Cup qualify six (2000) and four (2001), the Tyrolean election received Austrian citizenship in 2002.
As an Australian, she was second at Klagenfurt in 2002 with 8:58:27 hours, the best female time achieved in an Ironman debut. As an Austrian, she placed seventh in the famous Ironman Hawaii in the same year. In 2003 Allen, who lived in Innsbruck and went to Australia to train in the winter months, won the Ironman Austria in Carinthia at the best time of the year at 8:54:01. In the 2004 Olympic year, he concentrated entirely on the Olympic distance (1.5 km swimming, 40 km cycling and 10 km running) and won EM silver in Valencia.
Furious Quest for Olympic Gold
On August 25, 2004, Allen landed the biggest hit of his career at the Vouliagmeni Olympic Center south of Athens. “This is a total surprise, I was in the shape of my life,” he should start his victory interview after having done a furious search from an apparently desperate position and caught Australian favorite Loretta Harrop in the last few meters.
The 34-year-old woman was really in the shape of her life. After swimming in a bay in the warm 26 degree water, I was only 44th in the field of 50 participants. 2:01 minutes behind leader Harrop, he had kept the gap in his weakest discipline by far, laying the foundation for future success. On the demanding bike tour, Allen benefited from good teamwork from a larger chase group and also advanced to 28th place with solid performance, but was already 2:48 minutes behind leader Harrop.
In his favorite discipline, running, he immediately started the turbo, quickly gained a lot of ground at high temperatures and was only about ten seconds behind the bronze before the last of the three laps. After more overtaking maneuvers, Allen finished second in the stretch, started an irresistible race, and finally relegated Harrop, who can no longer fight, to second after a total of 2:04:43 hours for more than six seconds. With a run time of 34:13 minutes, she distanced the second-best runner by more than a minute and Harrop by nearly three minutes.
“The race of my life”
Although she had demonstrated her career strength several times beforehand, Allen was surprised by herself after the win: “She didn’t believe me, she would have satisfied me with a place in the top 15.” But the swimming was perfect, I had a good group in cycling and running was a surprise. Overall, it was the race of my life. My husband had to tell me first that I was third and I was running for money. I only saw Loretta shortly before the end and she didn’t get any faster. That is an incredible feeling. ” In the process, he even seriously considered not starting due to the supposedly poor form of swimming.
The international trade press had also not included the 40th place in the world ranking, which had not competed in a race since the EM in April and had missed the World Cup due to a calf injury, on the list of possible medalists . Occasionally she was even called “New Zealand”. In his adoptive country of Austria, the only fourth red-white-red summer Olympic champion was suddenly a star after fencer Ellen Müller-Preis (1932), javelin thrower Herma Bauma (1948) and dressage rider Elisabeth Theurer (1980), and was clearly named athlete of the year and also received the Gold Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic.
Severe accident hampers the defense of the title
In the following years, Allen returned to the Ironman distance, winning a second time at Klagenfurt in 2005 and finishing fifth in 2005 and 2006 in Hawaii. He also demonstrated his potential to run in the 2006 Vienna City Marathon (VCM). In the VCM half marathon, he defeated the world champion in mountain athletics and later ÖLV record holder Andrea Mayr in a sprint in an Austrian duel. for the victory. With Olympiagold’s impending defense, she returned at close range and became vice-European champion in Copenhagen in 2007, just like three years earlier.
In April 2008 it was delayed. At the World Cup competition in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Allen was involved in a serious bicycle accident with American Mary Beth Ellis. He broke three teeth and suffered severe facial injuries and a torn ligament in his thumb. By the way, it was the only racing task in his career. Allen attributed the fall to a collision with Lisa Hütthaler, her direct competitor for a place on the ÖOC Olympic team. In an investigation carried out by the Austrian Association (ÖTRV), Hütthaler was unable to prove any intentional misconduct and, therefore, a sanction was avoided.
Allen was able to start as a defending champion in Beijing in August, but the consequences of the accident had a negative impact on form, especially swimming, so she could be satisfied with the 14th position under the circumstances. A few days later, she announced the end of his career for next year.
Avoid doping charges and end of career.
Before the end of his career, however, he had to deal with doping charges. In June 2009, the Austrian news magazine “profil” reported that Allen had taken an asthma medication without permission in his 2004 Olympic victory. In a post-race doping test, no banned substances were found, but Allen had indicated intake according to anti-doping guidelines.
Both ÖTRV and the International Triathlon Association (ITU) had the necessary exemption, but the associations had not passed them to the Austrian (ÖOC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, the IOC did not accept the presented certificate, only after the Austrian interventions, Allen had the opportunity to perform a test that confirmed the asthma and therefore avoided the impending disqualification. Her lawsuit against the “profile” ended after a cease and desist order and the magazine paid a sum of money out of court.
Allen finally ended his career in September 2009 on the Gold Coast in his native Australia. The 39-year-old had already said goodbye to Austria since seventh place in the World Series in Kitzbühel in July, in the city where she met her crucial husband 14 years earlier. Allen and Diechtler have been the parents of one child since 2011.
