Dhe former speed skater Robert Lehmann-Dolle has been acquitted of the charge of blood doping by the German Sports Arbitration Court Dis. This means that the National Anti-Doping Agency Nada with its arbitration request, which is based on the statements of the Erfurt doctor Dr. Mark S. supported, failed. Nada was unable to provide evidence of an anti-doping rule violation. S. was arrested in February 2019 as part of “Operation Aderlass” and is considered by the Munich public prosecutor to be the mastermind behind a blood doping ring.
“Nada relied solely on the fact that Mark S. incriminated our client,” said Lehmann-Dolles lawyer Katharina Rogge of the German press agency. The lawyer had argued that the statements of Mark S. were imprecise and contradicting. The German Sports Arbitration Court followed her. Accordingly, Nada was not able to “sufficiently increase the existing strong suspicion of the arbitral tribunal,” says the arbitration award. There is no evidence that the 36-year-old manipulated. “I feared for over 500 days. Of course, I was totally relieved and first of all I shed a few tears, ”said the former Erfurt native of the dpa. The 36-year-old has lived in Berlin for years and most recently worked as a junior coach at the capital’s Olympic base.
There Lehmann-Dolle was dismissed without notice because of the doping allegations. He defends himself against the termination before the labor court. “Of course I now have the hope that I can take up my coaching job again,” he told the dpa. After it became public that S. had incriminated Lehmann-Dolle, who competed three times for Germany at the Olympic Games, he was tackled hard among German speed skaters.
Athletes spokesman Moritz Geisreiter had said that his hope had fizzled out that the suspicion would turn out to be unfounded, but one would have to wait and see what the investigations would result. Claudia Pechstein devoted 13 paragraphs to Lehmann-Dolle in a post on her Facebook account. “Hello Robert L.”, garnished with a red exclamation mark. In thirteen paragraphs, the 47-year-old demands that L. should have long since explained himself “by a clear public positioning”. “Everyone who loves our sport expected a public reaction from you! I, too, as your long-time team colleague. “
It is about “much more” than the individual fate. Claudia Pechstein had founded the team “Mission Sochi 2014” with the support of her partner and current acting president of the German speed skating association Matthias Große before the Olympics in Sochi 2014, after her suspension due to abnormal blood values and the inherited blood anomaly she presented as an explanation the only male member was Lehmann-Dolle. He had endured Pechstein’s Facebook Suada and only said to the “Spiegel” at the end of May 2020: “I have never doped.”
After the acquittal of Lehmann-Dolles, Große referred to the proceedings before the labor court: “This is now a matter for the Olympic base.” Nada announced that it would examine the decision of the Dis and to advise whether it should appeal to the International Sports Arbitration Court Cas. S. is to be tried from September 16 at the Munich Regional Court. He is accused of violating the Medicines Act and the Anti-Doping Act. The prosecution assumes that he has been doping blood regularly and in an unknown number of cases worldwide since the end of 2011.
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