Guy Dresser | Royal Canoe Club - Rivals wondering when they’ll see Germany’s 14-time sprint kayaking world champion and four-time Olympic champion Katrin Wagner-Augustin exit the world stage will have a year or two to wait, it appears.

The 36-year-old mother of one from Potsdam who, since the retirement of Birgit Fischer, is Germany’s most successful current racing kayaker with six Olympic medals in all, and a huge tally of European and World Championship medals, told journalists in Germany this week that she still felt motivated to train and planned to go for selection again this year.

Wagner-Augustin, who won her 27th and 28th ICF World Championship medals at Duisburg in 2013, picked up her first World medals back in 1999. She told the German press agency dpa that she was still having fun in her boat and planned to bid for selection in the spring.

“Canoeing is like an addiction, you just can’t stop,” she declared.

Speculation over her retirement has hung over Wagner-Augustin since the Olympic Games in London where she finished second in the K4 500m. Wagner-Augustin had raced in the gold medal-winning crew at each of the three previous Olympic Games. In  fact, far from disappointing, the selection came a year after the birth of her son, Emil.

2013 also marked the 20th year of Wagner’s selection to the German national team. It now looks like a 21st celebration is in the offing later this year – and few will be betting against her chances of Olympic selection in 2016 either.

Check out the article on the dpa website here.

Wagner-Augustin’s website is here.