Doping and the second chance

It's cold outside. Bitterly cold. So cold that you almost have the impression that everything has frozen. Nothing is moving. But right now our hearts should be active. Love should be spread in these sentimental days. That's what we're told everywhere. The message is accompanied by a constant stream of schmaltzy songs. And yes: I understood it. Solidarity is needed again. Says the Christ Child.

I'm taking part. I've been vaccinated, twice of course, and I'm longing for the third jab in my strong upper arm. And in the meantime, I am full of Christian values because I still talk to my unvaccinated and unteachable friends. I try to convince them and even go outside with them, out into the arctic cold, to have a drink, because they, the stubborn lateral thinkers, don't give in and don't even know how to listen in on every conversation , why they react so nonsensically against society.

It takes generosity on our part. A lot of accommodation up to the limit of what you can do yourself. Because there is actually unbridled anger boiling inside me. But the Christ child doesn't want to see that from me. I have to be forgiving all year round. It has just been confirmed by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that the biathlete Olga Saitseva from Russia, who I have always valued very highly and is also very likeable, did doped for all she was worth in 2014.

Now their results from that time have been deleted, resulting in a new final standings in the overall World Cup. Suddenly the Finn Kaisa Mäkäräinen was no longer in front, but the Norwegian Tora Berger. The International Biathlon Union (IBU) at least found a Solomonic solution to the dilemma. Now both are listed as winners after seven years. And as so often in the past, it affected an athlete from Russia, which really strains my patience, because a former doping offender, also from Russia, is constantly running around in front of my eyes in biathlon. I can't prevent it and therefore have to cry with the wolves, especially since Alexander Loginov, that's his name, sometimes puts in good competitions and I can't completely deny that. Hopefully the Lord who sees everything will thank me later. A super doper should assist another super doper Unfortunately, he is not an isolated case. Especially in sport, it is the fallen who demand our patience after their fraud has been discovered. Suddenly their lives are a difficult fate after years of using unfair means to deprive their competitors of the fruits of their efforts. Jan Ullrich, the German cycling hero - he is actually still referred to as such - is once again not doing so well. And the big tabloid with the four letters actually asks the question: Can Lance Armstrong save his friend again? I have to read this a few times to really understand it. A super doper is supposed to help another super doper in need. In this context, we are asked to naturally feel sorry for Ullrich, because the drugs, which are probably harmful to his health, have probably affected him quite badly.

Alex Schwazer is also given space to tell his life story. © ANSA / ETTORE FERRARI / Archive

And our hearts are actually touched a little, just like Alex Schwazer, the Italian walker, who also cheated once and was perhaps even cheated himself the second time by the sports justice system because people no longer wanted to believe him after the first lie. He is also given space to tell his life story and report on his new life. And here too I find myself feeling a tiny bit of understanding for the athlete, because life after sport, whatever has happened, continues.

Christmas makes me feel milder. In another case it was even more intense. Stefan Matschiner, an Austrian sports manager, wrote a book while in prison after being convicted of blood doping. “Borderline. From the life of a doping dealer.” It sold well, because evil always has a certain fascination. What's crazy, however, is the fact that Matschiner even held readings in libraries, which were well attended. Incidentally, he later sold the equipment he needed for blood doping on his athletes to the Erfurt sports doctor Mark Schmidt, who was accused of aiding and abetting doping as part of Operation “Aderlass” in 2019. The fight for the second chance The swamp into which the sport continues to sink has never really been drained. And yet we, who follow all competitions naively but also enthusiastically, are expected to give second chances to everyone who is guilty of mistakes. Very high. It was almost as if all of this had always been just a petty crime, even though it was almost always a large-scale fraud machine. No, my heart doesn't really feel warm, which isn't due to the cold front that's currently flying around our ears. But I am prepared to give this Christian second chance in all the cases described and in others too.

Only when it comes to anti-vaxxers does my heart slowly but surely become as hard as a rock. Because the problem here is life-threatening and a second chance doesn't exist when you're lying on your stomach in the intensive care units fighting for your life. Doping is fraud and must be punished as such. But society is hardly affected by it. The refusal to fight together against the ever-new corona variants is more than that: it is a reaction that can no longer be accepted because it can also affect those who are doing everything to ensure that the fight against the virus is successful. Anti-vaxxers are more than doping offenders. You are a danger. For me and my life and that of my loved ones. Merry Christmas.

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Doping and the second chance

For Christmas, our columnist Sigi Heinrich once again makes an urgent appeal to all opponents of vaccination and also admits that it is not always easy to give former doping offenders a second chance. But at least he tries and sometimes even succeeds.

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