sport Blog and Journals

Shaken By Doping Scandal, Germany Mourns Death of Fair Play

By David Crossland in Berlin

Tearful confessions of doping by a host of cycling heroes has plunged Germany into a crisis of confidence. The scandal coincides with corruption probes at some of the country's most famous companies, and has left Germans wondering where the rot stops.

Bert Dietz, one of the Team Telekom racers who admitted to doping last week, in better days.

The triumphs of Team Telekom during the 1990s triggered a cycling craze in Germany. Little boys wanted to get racing bikes and grow up to be like Jan Ullrich, whose victory in the Tour de France in 1997 vaulted him into the hallowed ranks of German sporting heroes alongside Boris Becker, Michael Schumacher and Franz Beckenbauer.

Packs of amateur cyclists dressed like the pros in clinging lycra outfits whizzed down country roads. TV channels fought each other for the right to broadcast races live, and the then chief executive of team sponsor Deutsche Telekom AG, Ron Sommer, liked to be photographed alongside Ullrich, a symbol of success, dynamism, true grit, just what Germany needed.

That's all over and has been for a while. Persistent allegations that doping is endemic in professional cycling across Europe have done irreparable damage to the sport. But until now the cyclists, their doctors and trainers maintained a code of silence.

That silence was broken at the end of April by Belgian cycling masseur Jef D'hont, who worked for a host of cycling outfits and spent the years 1992 through 1996 at Team Telekom. In an article published in DER SPIEGEL, he described how doping has been commonplace in the sport for more than 40 years.

His revelations led to last week's avalanche of confessions by six former Team Telekom cyclists and two team doctors. It provoked a moral outcry from politicians, cycling federation chiefs and the media, and has left the country wonder what other sports may be infested with doping.

One Süddeutsche Zeitung commentator drew parallels with recent corruption scandals in German business such as the one that has engulfed Siemens AG, one of Germany's biggest and most venerable companies.

"It's the same with doping as it is with corruption: as long as everyone does it, those who go clean are the losers, while the dirty ones win," the paper wrote.

"The sport has failed dramatically. And nobody should be so naïve amid all the promises of improvement to believe that the sport will change its ways. The Spanish, Italians, and French have already experienced a scandal like that now being experienced by the Germans -- without anything having changed."

It's not just German cycling. The sport is reeling from two major doping scandals involving 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis and Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso. Both have deny any wrongdoing.