Two-time Olympic track cycling champion Kristina Vogel of Germany is paraplegic following a training accident in June.
"Regardless of how you say it, I can't walk," Vogel said in an interview with Der Spiegel news magazine, to be published Saturday.
"What can I do? I have always said the sooner you accept a new situation the better you can cope with it. That's why I am telling myself: OK, that's what it is now and I must see how I continue, what I can make out of it."
Vogel suffered the spinal injuries when colliding with another rider on a track in the eastern German city of Cottbus on June 26.
The 27-year-old was in an induced coma, underwent two operations and now hopes to be able to leave the hospital before Christmas.
Vogel won Olympic gold in the team sprint at the London Velodrome in 2012 and individual sprint gold in Rio de Janeiro four years later. She is also an 11-time world champion.
The accident sent shockwaves through the German cycling community, and her Chemnitz-based team has raised around 120,000 euros ($A195,000) for her.
Vogel said she realised right after the accident, while lying on the track, that she was paraplegic.
"I saw someone walk away with my shoes. But I didn't feel it when they were taken off. I realised immediately now I am paraplegic, there will be no more walking," she said.
Updates on the condition of 2016 Olympic sprint champion Vogel had not been given since late June, and Vogel told Der Spiegel she wanted it that way because "I didn't want to be seen this hurt.
"Now I can say I have reached a point where I can say: here I am and I am fine. I am still the same crazy person. I want to be a motivation for others."
Rudolf Scharping, the president of the Germany Cycling Association, said the organisation would give Vogel its complete support.
"The interview ... shows what a wonderful person Kristina Vogel is," he said.
Cyclist Miriam Welte, who won gold with Vogel in the 2012 Olympics team sprint, said: "We have had a few weeks to come to terms with the diagnosis and to get used to the thought of seeing Kristina in a wheelchair. That was extremely difficult."
Vogts says she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received, and money raised would help perhaps to buy a special car or "a cool wheelchair with carbon rims."
She has left open the possibility of Paralympic sport being an option as she ponders her future.
"I don't know if I will ever return to high-performance sport and if so in which discipline," she said.
