There are difficult months behind Robert Lehmann-Dolle. The suspicion of autologous doping in the course of "Operation Aderlass" weighed heavily on the former speed skater. Now the sports arbitration court acquitted the Thuringian. Nada is checking whether it will appeal.
Berlin (dpa) - Robert Lehmann-Dolle has been waiting for this news for months. Now the former speed skater has been acquitted of the charge of blood doping by the German Sports Arbitration Court in Dis.
"The Nada arbitration claim from May 2019 was dismissed," confirmed the National Anti-Doping Agency Nada upon request. First the magazine "Der Spiegel" reported about it.
"I worried for over 500 days. Of course, I was totally relieved and first of all I shed a few tears," said the former Erfurt of the German press agency. The 36-year-old has lived in Berlin for years and most recently worked as a junior trainer at the capital's Olympic base.
There Lehmann-Dolle was dismissed without notice because of the doping allegations and has been conducting a labor court process since then. "Of course I now have the hope that I can take up my coaching job again," he said. And he admits that some hostility - including Claudia Pechstein's - "hurt him a lot".
Speed skating president Matthias Große, Pechstein's partner, did not want to comment on the dis decision on request. He referred to the proceedings before the labor court: "This is now a matter for the Olympic base." The Nada will now examine the decision of the Dis and also evaluate whether and to what extent they will appeal against it before the International Court of Justice Cas.
Nada was unable to provide evidence of a violation of anti-doping regulations after the three-time Olympic participant Lehmann-Dolle was incriminated by Erfurt doctor Mark S. last spring. He will be on trial in Munich on September 16 for "Operation Aderlass". He is accused of violating the Medicines Act and the Anti-Doping Act. The prosecution assumes that he has been involved in blood doping regularly and in an unknown number of cases around the world since the end of 2011.
"Nada relied solely on the fact that Mark S. had incriminated our client," said Lehmann-Dolles lawyer Katharina Rogge of the dpa. The lawyer had based the dismissal on the fact that the statements of Mark S. were inaccurate and contradicting. The German Sports Arbitration Court now followed their argument.
Mittelstreckler Lehmann was part of the German speed skating selection for years and took part in the Winter Olympics in 2006, 2010 and 2014. After the games in Sochi six years ago, he ended his sporting career.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200818-99-209866 / 3
Report Spiegel
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