Many medals and a doping sin

Created: 08/28/2022, 1:00 p.m

By: Wolfgang Krzizok

Full steam ahead: Christoph Langen (front) with his brakemen (from left) Markus Zimmermann, Thomas Platzer and Sven Ruhr at the 1999 World Cup. Langen hadn't found his gloves at the time and was riding in gardening gloves – best time.

© Imago

The sporting life of Thomas Platzer, who came in 82nd in our “Erdings Top 100” series, was ups and downs.

Isen – The 52-year-old from Isen might have made it far in football.

However, he opted for skeleton and bobsleigh, celebrated many national and international successes - only the Olympic dream remained unfulfilled - before he was convicted of doping after his skeleton comeback, but dealt with it openly.

He transitioned into coaching and molded two Olympic medalists.

Thomas Platzer saw the light of day in October 1969 in Munich-Bogenhausen as the first son of Rosi and Heinrich Platzer.

The father, who is a coachbuilder and plumber by trade, is an avid bobsledder and spends almost all of his free time on the bobsleigh and toboggan run at Königssee.

Ultimately, bobsledding became too expensive for him, so he switched to skeleton.

"I stood at the track for the first time when I was four years old, and then when I was twelve I drove skeleton myself," says Thomas Platzer.

Father Heinrich develops, constructs and produces his skeleton sleds himself, and between 1970 and 1975 he was on the podium at eight Bavarian and German championships.

The official regulations of the international skeleton federation IBSF are still based on more than 90 percent of his sled technology and his inventions.

Early practice: Thomas Platzer as a little boy in the living room on his father's skeleton sled.

© Private

No wonder son Thomas is infected with the skeleton virus.

But bobsledding also fascinates him.

In 1985 he was allowed to accompany his father to the Bobsleigh World Championships in St. Moritz and was enthusiastic about the then dominant GDR bobsleds.

“They were guarded like Formula 1 cars and always covered,” remembers Thomas Platzer.

"You could only take a closer look at them immediately before you got on the track."

"In the 1960s, my father considered whether he should buy a property or a Porsche, and then decided on a property in Isen," says Thomas Platzer with a smile.

A house was built in 1979, and in 1981 the Platzer family moved from Neufahrn to Isen.

"I was crazy about football back then," he says, and starts as a goalkeeper at TSV Isen, his coach is Günter Neef junior.

When the 14-year-old Thomas clears the district sports festival – first over 100 meters, first in the shot put, first in the long jump, first in the high jump – the Altenerdinger full-back Maurizio Cusati sees him.

He tells SpVgg youth leader Theo Bamberg, who immediately goes to Isen and poaches the talent.

"I was allowed to stop as a C youth in the B youth, that was an honor for me," emphasizes the Isener.

Platzer then becomes the successor to keeper Andy Brenninger in the A-Youth, begins an apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic, trains three times a week in Altenerding and once in Isen, and also drives skeleton.

"And suddenly I didn't feel like playing football anymore - I just didn't enjoy it anymore.

Also, I've grown fast.” So only skeleton.

In the Starfighter: Thomas Platzer completed his training as an aircraft mechanic at the Erding Air Base.

© Private

21-year-old Thomas Platzer was 1.94 meters tall and weighed 94 kilos when he became German skeleton champion and fourth at the World Championships – and defended his German title the following year.

One day, bobsleigh pilot Sepp Dostthaler approaches him at Königssee and asks the young lad: "Don't you like our bobsleigh, don't you?"

His goal is the sports promotion group.

But until then he needs a job.

He works as a picker in the Spar supermarket in Poing (“half-day, five-hour piecework”), then he goes to the sports school in Unterhaching for training, where athletes from the sports promotion group also train.

"It was great who you met there," enthuses the Isener: "People like Schorsch Hackl, Markus Wasmeier, Hilde Gerg, Fritz Fischer or Ricco Groß." Bobsleigh national coach Raimund Bethge finally gives Thomas Platzer a place in the Sports promotion group of the Bundeswehr - he is now part of the perspective squad.

There is also daily training at the Olympic base in Munich.

"When Boris Becker is lying on the massage bench, you stand there with your mouth open." Weightlifter Manfred Nerlinger, multiple world champion and Olympic medalist,

Thomas Platzer was in the Dostthaler bobsleigh for four years from 1994, during this time he became German champion in the two-man bobsleigh, vice-European champion, won the World Cup race in Winterberg (“On Christoph Langen’s home track”) and came second in the overall World Cup.

"We didn't tear anything in the foursome, we didn't have any sensible material," explains Thomas Platzer.

In between, he became world champion at the Junior World Championships in 1995 with René Spies.

A bitter moment is the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano (Japan).

"We didn't qualify by two hundredths," the Isener is still annoyed today.

"Christoph Langen became Olympic champion and we sat at home." When Langen asked him shortly afterwards whether he wanted to join his team, "I said yes immediately".

His word carries weight: The then bobsleigh national coach Raimund Bethge (left) with Thomas Platzer during training in the weight room.

© Private

What now follows are "my most successful years, Christoph has helped me in my development," emphasizes Thomas Platzer.

He sits in twos and fours, "and apart from the Olympics, I've won everything during this time".

He can still remember a World Cup race in Winterberg, “when we sat in the mobile home after the first run after the best time, changed our clothes there, watched the competition on TV and Christoph suddenly scolded us.

'Turn off that shit box!'” It had started to snow, “and normally you have to start differently, but Christoph swept the inrun track himself and then set a confident best time”.

Another person who really impressed him during this time was Wolfgang Hoppe at the 1995 World Cup in Winterberg.

Thomas Platzer was still a junior back then.

"The Hoppe was a cool sock," he recalls.

"He was telling jokes just before the start, then he got into the bobsled, set the best time and became world champion."

In 2002 the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (USA) are just around the corner.

"I was on top of things, was always the best in the entire association in all tests - whether Oberhof or Königssee, I was always first," says Thomas Platzer of his most bitter moment.

"A few weeks before the Olympics we made an internal elimination in the team, I was always first in all tests - and then I wasn't considered for the second." Why?

"Markus Zimmermann schemed, he persuaded Christoph that I had no experience."

Very close behind is the Swiss Christian Reich, who says to Thomas Platzer after the competition: "I would have started faster with you."

The Isener hopes to play in the foursome, but this dream is shattered because Langen cannot start due to an injury.

"When it comes to the Olympics, decisions are sometimes made that are incomprehensible," the 52-year-old thinks back sadly to Salt Lake City.

"In any case, I was immensely disappointed." The remaining days he goes around the houses with tobogganist Schorsch Hackl: "We were out and about and had a blast."

Thomas Platzer is so disappointed that he turns his back on bobsleigh and switches back to skeleton.

"I came back after ten years, wanted to be the best and took performance-enhancing drugs," he admits.

“The same as then US track and field athlete Ben Johnson.” The sprinter won the 100 meters in a sensational 9.8 seconds at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, but was then exposed as a doper.

And the Isener is also convicted of doping.

“It was only afterwards that I realized that it was a big mistake.

And if you make a mistake, you have to own up to it," he says, appearing live at the current sports studio.

"Wolf-Dieter Poschmann called me and I went there." And the man from Isen adds with a smile: "I wasn't invited as world champion."

Moderator Poschmann is surprised by Thomas Platzer's openness.

"You're the first doping offender to admit it," he says.

And Thomas Platzer tells everything without looking for excuses, without glossing over anything.

"We only had twelve minutes, and I just about got my story in there," he says, admitting: "It was hard to talk about it in public." After his confession, however, he "received a lot of positive feedback, and that reassured me that going public was the right way to go."

After his ban expires, the man from Isen works as a trainer for the German association and is also building up a second mainstay.

He buys a medical supply store in Kaufbeuren and converts it into the orthopedic manufacturer gangbild GmbH.

“We soon specialized in insoles.

At that time we sold 1,200 pairs of insoles per year, now it's 15,000, at that time we had an annual turnover of 140,000 euros, now it's two million," he says proudly.

Among other things, his company works with the well-known Munich sports doctor Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt. Customers include Usain Bolt, Tiger Woods, Boris Becker and Oliver Kahn.

Second pillar: Together with his brother Martin, Thomas Platzer looks after young, talented footballers at the training center in Aufhausen.

© Wolfgang Krzizok

But the sport does not let go of the Isener.

Thomas Platzer joins the Russian federation, coaches the national skeleton team from 2005 to 2008, "and suddenly the Russians had a World Cup winner."

From 2009 to 2010, the Isener was employed by the Austrian Skeleton Association before the Russians took him back.

Together with Willi Schneider, he is preparing the skeleton team for the 2014 home Olympics in Sochi - and the German coaching duo is successful: Alexander Tretjakov wins gold for men, 20-year-old Jelena Nikitina bronze for women.

"I discovered Lena when I was 18, she immediately won the junior world championships and later the senior Europeans and the World Cup," reports Thomas Platzer proudly.

"At the Olympics, she was so nervous

He is now concentrating on his company, which now has eight branches.

And he supports his younger brother Martin in setting up MP coaching, which has its training center in the Aufhausen district of Erding.

Around 20 talents from FC Bayern, TSV 1860 Munich and SpVgg Unterhaching are currently doing additional training sessions here and are also receiving mental support.

Thomas Platzer and his ex-partner Sarah have a son.

"Vincent is 13 years old, already 1.82 meters tall and started skeleton this year," says the proud father.

"And he has talent - let's see what will happen." The 52-year-old looks back on his life with satisfaction.

"I'm so grateful that my parents have always supported me and that I was able to earn my living with sport."

And I can only call out to every young person: Do sports!”

In "Erding's Top 100" Thomas Platzer ranks 82nd