Sport Jan Ullrich
“I couldn’t bear my past”
Status: 08/09/2023 | Reading time: 2 minutes
Jan Ullrich: “It was really a matter of life or death”
Source: dpa/Christian Kolbert
Private problems, alcohol, drugs: Rarely has a sports hero fallen as deeply as Jan Ullrich. But the former Tour de France winner picked himself up. Now he can look back openly on his “huge fall.” He also collects his eternal mantra.
For Jan Ullrich (49), coming to terms with his past for a documentary caused huge problems. “It was incredibly difficult. There were a lot of tears and sleepless nights, I suddenly had panic attacks,” said the former Tour de France winner in Munich at the presentation of the documentary “Jan Ullrich – The Hunted”, which will be available on Amazon Prime from November 28th Video will be shown.
Ullrich wants to deal with everything “openly and honestly”. According to his own statement, he wants the “viewers to be able to empathize with him.”
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In Munich he also reported on private problems with alcohol and drugs. “Five years ago I had my huge crash, it was really a matter of life and death, I lost almost everything, including almost my life,” said Ullrich, who was only ready to do the documentation afterwards. “The decisive point was that crash, I fought my way out of it with the last of my strength and help.” Before that, Ullrich had suppressed everything. “I couldn’t bear my past myself,” he admitted.
Ullrich’s mantra: “I have never cheated on anyone”
With his Tour victory in 1997 wearing the Team Telekom jersey, Ullrich triggered a real cycling boom in Germany. In 2006, the Olympic champion (Ullrich won gold in Sydney in 2000) was suspended from his team shortly before the start of the Tour of France because he had connections to doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) banned Ullrich for two years in 2012.
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Ullrich had often denied doping allegations with the sentence: “I have never cheated anyone.” But he is now hinting at a comprehensive doping confession. “It was wrong that I didn’t cheat on anyone. For me it was geared towards my opponents, but of course the fans are also part of it,” he said in the documentary.
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