Pechstein reveals Olympic cycling ambition

Germany's five-time Olympic speed skating champion Claudia Pechstein has revealed that she wants to compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games, but on the cycling track. "My goal is to compete at the London Olympics in 2012. I want to race on the track -- as a cyclist," she told German magazine Sport-Bild on Tuesday. The 39-year-old finished serving a two-year suspension on February 8 for blood abnormalities and says she will compete in the individual pursuit at next month's German Cycling Championships from July 6-10. She said she is considering competing in the sprint or the 500m time-trial in a bid to win a berth in London. "I think I can do it because I trained a lot on a bike as a speed skater. And I have nothing to lose," she said. Pechstein insists her priority remains to race in the speed skating competition at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, even if her current suspension prohibits her from doing so. Under the International Olympic Committee's 'Osaka Rule,' any athlete who is suspended from their sport for more than six months is prohibited from competing at the next two Olympic Games following the ban. Pechstein has never actually failed a blood test and has always protested her innocence, explaining the high level of red blood cells in her blood as a congenital anomaly proven by haematologists. "This rule does not apply to me me, I have never doped. My suspension was a miscarriage of justice, based on a single indicator -- my elevated reticulocyte count," she said. "These values have long been declared medically through my blood abnormality. "Now I want the chance to compete at a Games, which was stolen from me at Vancouver. I will fight for my chance, athletically, diplomatically -- and, if necessary, also legally." There is a precedent in Germany for an athlete crossing over Olympic disciplines with success. Speed skater Christa Rothenburger-Luding won silver medals in the 1000m and 500m silver in the Calgary Winter Olympics of 1988 before also taking a cycling silver on the track at Seoul's Summer Games, seven months later.