My coach
"I'm proud of Joachim Franke, because he made me to what I am today"
Since his early childhood, Joachim Franke is connected to sports on ice. Before he took care of the speed skaters, he was a successfull ice hockey player for years. He was born on March 30, 1940 in Weißwasser and played 116 times for the GDR icehockey national team. Even after the end of his own career in 1969, he stayed devoted to ice sports, first as coach for ice hockey, since 1973 as coach for speed skating.
Joachim Franke,
most successful speed skating coach of the World
born on March 30, 1940 in Weißwasser, living in Berlin, married to Ingrid, two daughters (Gudrun und Kathrin), 3 grandchildren (André, Annika, Ann-Marleen, 1 great-grandchild (Ella)
Sports career
1954 to 1969 Ice hockey player with SG Dynamo Weißwasser
Biggest successes in ice hockey
116 caps
European Championships: Bronze (1966)
World Championships: 5. Platz
(3x) GDR champion from 1959 to 1965
Successes as ice hockey coach
GDR champion from 1969 to 1972
Speed skating coach since 1973
Biggest successes as speed skating coach
Olympic Wintergames:
9x Gold
5x Silver
4x Bronze
Was coach of Olympic champions
Claudia Pechstein (5x)
Uwe-Jens Mey (2x)
André Hoffmann (1x)
Olaf Zinke (1x)
World Championships
24x Gold
23x Silver
21x Bronze
World Cup (Overall Ranking)
21x 1st
22x 2nd
8x 3rd,
and more than 200 individual race wins at World Cup
Tributes and Honors
Golden ribbon of the sports press
Speed skating coach of the year 2001, 2002
Berlin's coach of the year 2002
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2002)