Friday, August 27, 2021
After a sensational World Cup gold in 1991
The deep fall of Katrin Krabbe
Katrin Krabbe is celebrated as “Grace Kelly of the tartan track” after she won gold in the 100 meters in 1991. But the high is followed by a crash because suspected doping cannot be shaken off. Even a million payment does not change that – which also leads to trouble.
August 27, 1991. Tokyo, Old Olympic Stadium. Katrin Krabbe, 22 years old, looks determined, tugs her braid again and crouches in her starting block at 6:20 p.m. local time. Nothing can go wrong. It should be her big evening, Krabbe is in top shape. And it explodes, has the best start on lane three, Krabbe flies long strides towards the finish line, Gwen Torrence (USA) and Merlene Ottey (Jamaica) have no chance. 10.99 seconds. Krabbe, the blonde girl from Neubrandenburg, is world champion over 100 meters.
“I was so mentally strong that day that I knew I was going to win,” said Krabbe once about the day she rose to the “Grace Kelly of the tartan track”. Three days later she won gold over 200 meters, Krabbe sits on the sprint throne, the world is at her feet. Having grown up in the GDR, after the fall of the Berlin Wall she suddenly became the first really big sports star in reunified Germany. She is at the top.
Only six months later, the sprint queen began to crash. February 1992: Krabbe and her training colleagues Grit Breuer and Silke Möller are accused of manipulating. There are no positive doping results, but her urine samples, taken in Zinnowitz and in Stellenbosch, South Africa, are absolutely identical. The trio is suspended by the German Athletics Association (DLV), the world association joins them. At the end of June, Krabbe and Co. were acquitted of suspected doping by the IAAF arbitration tribunal because of formal errors.
August 1992: Krabbe didn’t make it to the Olympic Games in Barcelona, but still makes headlines. Krabbe and Breuer were convicted of taking Clenbuterol during several training checks in July. One day later, her trainer Thomas Springstein confirmed that she was taking the product used in calf fattening. However, the anabolic Clenbuterol is not on the prohibited list at this point in time. Krabbe and Breuer are banned by the DLV for “drug abuse” for one year. The IAAF extends the ban to two years.
“Suddenly it was a different life, a rupture,” Krabbe said to the Nordkurier last time: “The only thing I have to be reproached for is that I took a drug without a prescription. But it makes no sense to ask what if. ” At that time, Krabbe took legal action against the lock, suing for damages in the millions.
In May 1995, the Munich Regional Court found her right, and only seven years later, in April 2002, did Krabbe and the then IAAF agree on a compensation payment of around 1.2 million marks. Krabbe himself puts the damage at “ten to twelve million marks”. The million payment does not bring Krab the necessary luck either. She and her husband Michael Zimmermann fail to declare the payment on their tax return. In 2009 the couple was convicted of tax evasion. The tax debts amount to 100,000 euros, Krabbe has to file private bankruptcy. In 2015 her husband took his own life.
Krabbe has been through a lot, she shot high and fell so deep that it could easily last two lives. In the meantime she has made her peace and is in love again. “It’s all good,” says Katrin Krabbe.
.