Curious moment in TV show
On live TV: Jan Ullrich doesn’t recognize the sports legend
October 26, 2025 – 7:12 a.mReading time: 1 min.
In “Schlag den Star” the former cyclist is confronted with stars from other sports. It doesn’t end well – his opponent does it better.
Jan Ullrich caused a strange TV moment during his appearance on the ProSieben show “Schlag den Star”. In a duel with Olympic ski jumping champion Sven Hannawald on Saturday evening, the former professional cyclist failed in a sports quiz of all things – and didn’t even recognize swimming icon Michael Phelps.
In the second game of the evening, the two candidates had to assign prominent athletes to a sport based on pictures of their everyday clothing. Names weren’t required – just discipline. But Ullrich showed significant weaknesses. In nine pictures shown, he didn’t get a single correct hit. The game ended 0:5 for him.
Ullrich’s explanation of his poor performance also caused laughter: “Yes, it’s difficult. Nobody recognizes me without a helmet.”
Hannawald was also initially unable to identify the American. Only when images of gold medals were shown did he react with a grin: “Ah, of course I recognize him now.”
Another picture also caused a question mark: the German national goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was also not recognized by either candidate – the correct answer “football” was not given.
However, Hannawald demonstrated a much broader knowledge of the sport over the course of the game. He recognized ski star Lindsey Vonn, Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, golf professional Rory McIlroy, dressage rider Isabell Werth and rhythmic gymnast Darja Varfolomeev.
“You can see that I almost only watch cycling. I didn’t want to guess either. That wouldn’t have made it any better,” Ullrich commented on the false start with a smile.