by Cody Bashore
While Northern Arizona University's track and field program is known for its long list of successful distance runners, one of the team's greatest all-around athletes earned a pair of All-American honors during her Lumberjack career.
Sabine Krieger's third and fourth-place finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships stands as he best result for any woman multi athlete at Northern Arizona and among just a few women to earn multiple All-American honors.
After finishing her eligibility, Krieger ranked inside the world's top 20 in the heptathlon, finished second at the European championships and served as Germany's alternate for the event at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Despite the success by most measures, Krieger admits it wasn't everything she hoped for.
"I could have been better," Krieger said with a laugh. "That might be a typical response from me, but I struggled at the end with some injuries which held me back. But that's part of life as an athlete. The more mature you get and the more you train, (injuries) will come."
Krieger finished up her competitive career in 2004, a few years after graduating from Northern Arizona a second time with a Master's Degree in Exercise Physiology.
"I never reached my full potential, but there's not many athletes who reach their full potential," Krieger said "I am very proud of what I did, my personality just always is I could have done better. It is just how I am. Some other people would say that is amazing... I would do it again and again, if I would be that age again. I would do it exactly the same, I wouldn't really change anything."
ARRIVING IN FLAGSTAFF
Krieger said her performance as an 18-year-old at the Junior European Championships brought attention to American universities looking to recruit overseas. First attending Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Krieger transferred to Northern Arizona thanks to a fellow German.
Susan Seaton, now the director of cross country and track and field at Cincinnati, served as an assistant coach for Northern Arizona after arriving in the United States from East Germany a few years earlier.
After Krieger felt SMU was not the right fit for her, Seaton reached out once becoming aware of the possibility of a transfer. Unaware of Northern Arizona's prowess in distance running, Krieger elected to move to Flagstaff thanks to a connection with Seaton and the team's consistent heptathlon success. Thanks to the addition of Krieger, the Northern Arizona women's team took Big Sky heptathlon gold for seven straight years from 1992-98 with four different athletes, with three also reaching the NCAAs in the event from 1996-99.
From there on, Krieger settled in for the final three years of her college career in a drastically different atmosphere than that of East Germany.
While she attended a sports school in her home country, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany soon after led to instability of the nation's athletics organization.
"That all fell apart right at that time, the funding wasn't there anymore and coaches left," Krieger said. "So I was kind of living in limbo, but I wanted to compete. It was a very strict system and I wanted to have a little bit more fun... I was just in the beginning of my career and I wanted to continue. Going to the United States was just a dream of mine."
Krieger said one of the only concerns coming to the United States was her lack of English, but added she learned quickly once she arrived. Upon arriving, she said the differences between East Germany and the United States became clear.
"The sports school was very, very strict and here it was not. There was a lot more freedom, it was a lot more fun at NAU. There was a lot more team spirit, cheering other people on," Krieger said. "You could be yourself. In East Germany you were not allowed to talk to the other athletes in the competition and I never liked it.
"I loved the sport again pretty much because that's the way you are supposed to do sports, you give your best and have a fun time with yourself, your teammates and your coaches."
In her first outdoor season for the Lumberjacks, Krieger took the Big Sky Conference title in the event, as well as the high jump title. In addition to her work in the multis, she added team points in the javelin and long jump.
Scoring 5,670 points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Indiana, Krieger placed No. 2 on the Big Sky's all-time heptathlon scoring list.
However, she would top her own record, as well as the Big Sky's best mark before her career ended. After scoring points in the shot put, long jump, high jump, javelin and the 100-meter hurdles at the 1999 Big Sky Championships, Krieger followed up with 5,766 points in the heptathlon in Boise to finish third nationally.
LIFE AFTER COLLEGE
Krieger remained at Northern Arizona for her graduate program, working towards her degree while continuing to work out and compete during the summer in Europe.
Even coaching for the Lumberjacks at one point during her post-graduate studies, Krieger went on to the best years of her career after earning her Masters.
"I competed all the way until 2004, and my best heptathlon points were in 2002 I believe. I was ranked top 20 in the world, one time was 16th and one time I was 17th," Krieger said. "I would say that was kind of my best accomplishment after NAU. Second at the european cup, for me that was a big accomplishment."
While Krieger said she was among the best in Europe in 2004, Germany's depth in the event kept her out of the competition. Just three countries sent three athletes to the Athens' heptathlon, with Germany's sixth, 12th and 17th-place finishes similar to the United States fourth, 14th and 20th.
As her competitive career came to an end, Krieger began to seek out a use for her studies. Having obtained a permanent residency in the United States, keeping her German citizenship in effect, Krieger returned to Arizona and started her own business.
Offering personal training, nutrition classes and massages, Krieger said she kept herself plenty busy through the years before having her son three years ago. With him headed to preschool now, Krieger said she picked back up on her work after cutting back in recent years.
"There's a lot of freedom and a lot of opportunities. I always felt that if you were successful, people were happy for you," Krieger said of remaining in the United States full-time. "People always say the United States is the country of possibilities, it is true."
Krieger said she had seen people placed into categories growing up, with athletes pushed to specific sports or events based on their body types while the United States often offered encouragement and positivity.
APPLYING ATHLETICS TO HER CAREER
Now helping average people to a healthy lifestyle rather than pushing herself to an Olympic level of competition, the adjustment has come easier thanks to the mindset she developed while competing.
"It is kind of just learning how to motivate people to be their best. You have to be very, very flexible," Krieger said. "People do like the fact that I come from East Germany and say 'Hey you are not really as strict as I imagined'."
Balancing her influence from her youth and collegiate careers, Krieger said she found a happy medium of how hard to push and how competitive to be.
"I am competitive in the moment I do the event, before and after I am very easy going. I have always been like that," Krieger said. "You just focus right then. People think when you are competitive, you are almost angry and you don't talk to anybody. That's not true.
"Everybody defines being competitive and being focused a little bit different. In the heptathlon and decathlon, you compete over two days and you have friends. You can't be tense and focused for two days, you do your thing and then you relax and hang out."
While her work and lifestyle have kept her in shape since her retirement, Krieger said she still runs 5Ks or Spartan Races, with the obstacles offering a similar feeling to the variety of challenges in a heptathlon. However all the activities, including hiking, mountain biking and kiteboarding, are done just for the fun.
"People always try to say 'Hey you should do triathlons,' but I have done my career and I don't want to get up every morning at 5 o'clock," Krieger said. "I train a little bit for that, but nothing serious, just for fun."
