German sports boss urges review of Pechstein doping case

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's sports chief has urged the International Skating Union (ISU) to reopen the case of Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein, who was banned for doping but won the right in a German civil court to pursue her claim for compensation.

German sports boss urges review of Pechstein doping case

(Reuters)





German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) President Alfons Hoermann said five independent medical experts asked by the DOSB to review the evidence in the athlete's case had ruled the doping claim could not be medically substantiated.

"The experts whose advice we asked for came to a clear result. That the question marks in the Pechstein case are justifiably there," Hoermann said in a statement on Thursday.

"We appeal to the ISU to consider reopening the procedure."

The 42-year-old Pechstein, who is Germany's most decorated winter Olympian with five gold medals and nine in total, was handed a two-year ban by the ISU in 2009 over irregular blood results, although she never failed a drugs test.

The ISU said the results were evidence she had been doping, a claim Pechstein refuted, saying it was a condition she had inherited from her father.

She protested her innocence with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who upheld the suspension, before turning to German courts and demanding more than four million euros ($4.67 million) in damages over lost revenue due to the ban.

A Munich court rejected the CAS ruling earlier this month, allowing the case to be heard and setting a precedent with a civil court overruling the Swiss-based body that could lead to similar actions from other athletes.





(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by John O'Brien)


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