[5][6] From 1997 to 1999,[2] Thiel was a student of journalism at the Free University of Berlin whilst continuing her media career and broadening her knowledge.
[1][3] Thiel began working part-time for the broadcaster ZDF and was a sports reporter for the television programme ZDF-Morgenmagazin in Berlin starting from 2000.
[1][3][8] She was nominated for a Deutscher Fernsehpreis award in the Best Sports Broadcast category for her coverage of the 2002 Tour de France and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
[9] In mid-2003, she was moved to present the afternoon and evening heute sport bulletins, temporarily replacing the former professional swimmer and broadcaster Kristin Otto, who was on maternity leave.
[8] The final year of Thiel's life (2016) saw her present coverage of the Alpine World Cup for the ZDF-Sport-extra programme as well as the sports bulletin on heute that May.
[13] She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and underwent successful treatment,[13] keeping her free of tumour cells until symptoms re-emerged in 2014.