Berlin (dpa) – After allegations in connection with doping in the GDR, the chairman of the Bundestag sports committee and biathlon Olympic champion, Frank Ullrich, is retiring from his position on the supervisory board of the National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada).
He wanted to “weigh the criticism, which he considered inappropriate, for himself and let the office at Nada rest during this time,” said the SPD politician to the German Press Agency. The allegations should “neither harm the office nor damage the trust of doping victims”.
Ullrich interested in clarification
The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” had previously quoted documents from the GDR State Security, in which the former medical officer of the German Skiing Association of the GDR (DSLV), Hans-Joachim Kampf, is said to have noted in March that Ullrich was preparing for the Olympic Winter Games in Sarajevo 1984 should be doped with the testosterone preparation Oral-Turinabol. Ullrich is listed there along with 20 other athletes.
The SPD politician reiterated that he “neither knowingly had any contact with doping substances” either as an active athlete or as a trainer. “And yet I was part of a sporting system that was sometimes difficult for us athletes to understand. The Stasi file of the association doctor who was responsible for me shows this,” Ullrich admitted. “I can’t explain my name in it. Especially since I was no longer an active athlete in the period specified there.” At the same time, however, it is clear that this raises questions “which are difficult to reconcile with my position at the National Anti-Doping Agency”.
Ullrich accepted the offer from the German Bundestag’s SED victim commissioner, Evelyn Zupke, to talk to her. “I will also look for an exchange with her with those affected by doping. Ultimately, this is an opportunity to shed more light on the GDR sports system and the role that we played in it. The talks will also help to find out where we can better support doping victims,” he said.
CDU and CSU want the dismissal
Ullrich has been chairman of the sports committee in the Bundestag since mid-December, which is automatically entitled to a place on the Nada supervisory board based on the statutes. The CDU and CSU had already submitted an application for the SPD politician to be dismissed at the beginning of the week. “Anyone who sits on the board of directors of an organization whose main purpose is the fight against doping must be in no doubt about their own past in connection with doping. This is not the case with Frank Ullrich,” it says.
A commission of the German Ski Association came to the conclusion in 2009 that Ullrich “neither instructed the use of doping substances nor administered them to athletes himself, nor did he monitor or control their use” during the GDR era. The DSV therefore saw no reason for labor or service law steps or sport-political consequences against the then biathlon national coach.