“It started for me in 1996”
Ex-rad star Jan Ullrich admits – “Yes, I doped”
November 22, 2023, 6:21 p.m
Former cycling star Jan Ullrich has explicitly admitted for the first time that he took doping substances during his career. That’s what the 49-year-old said at the presentation of the Amazon documentary “Jan Ullrich – The Hunted” in Munich.
What Jan Ullrich has recently repeatedly hinted at, he now says openly: “Yes, I doped,” admits the former German cycling hero, who won the Tour de France in 1997 wearing the Telekom team jersey and thus triggered a huge hype. at the presentation of the new Amazon documentary “Jan Ullrich – The Hunted” in Munich. “If I had told my story, I could have had many wonderful years. I didn’t have the balls. It feels really good to say it.”
After almost two decades of silence and a violent alcohol and drug crash, he reported for the first time this week about years of doping in his team. “I don’t know if you can understand that from today’s perspective. But back then it all felt completely normal,” the ex-cyclist previously told “Stern”. Doping to maintain equal opportunities – this is how the banned substances were justified. “Without helping, the widespread perception at the time was that it would be like going to a shooting armed with only a knife,” the 49-year-old added before his confession.
“I knew I had to adapt medically”
Ullrich said at the documentary presentation that he was “guilty” and feels “guilty”. In an interview with the sports information service, he had previously spoken in detail about autologous blood doping as a professional. “I knew internally that I had to adapt medically as well,” he said.
Ullrich first contacted the now notorious doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes from Spain in the summer of 2003. “I wanted to win and build on my successes. I had a new team at the time and Dr. Fuentes was recommended to me. That’s how I ended up there,” he said. Shortly before the start of the Tour de France in 2006, this connection was to be Ullrich’s undoing – he was excluded from his team T-Mobile and ultimately ended his career in 2007.
However, the 1997 Tour de France winner emphasized that the blood doping was only “the last bit” from a sporting perspective. “You still have to have huge talent, still be hardworking and subordinate your whole life.” Ullrich wasn’t worried about his health at the time – “because everything was medically controlled. Ultimately, it was my own blood that I had taken – something natural,” he said.
“It started for me in 1996”
Other forms of illicit performance enhancement were already common practice at the beginning of Ullrich’s professional career in 1995, as Ullrich emphasized: “It started for me in 1996. When I came into contact with it, there were already substances that could not be controlled. It had been in cycling for a few years. Cycling already had a problem back then.”
The highly gifted Rostock native was therefore forced to resort to doping substances. “When I realized that I no longer had equal opportunities, the mental aspect also came into play. You sacrificed your whole life, you know you have the talent in you, you get better every year. And then knowing that otherwise “Having no chance from the start was the hardest thing,” said Ullrich. For him it was never about “cheating anyone or gaining an advantage, but about equal opportunities.”