“Not far from death”: Ullrich talks about his drug and alcohol crash

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Drugs, doping, death: Germany’s former cycling star Jan Ullrich has provided deep insights into the life crisis he has now overcome. In an interview with ‘Stern’, the winner of the 1997 Tour de France talked about the difficult time after the doping scandal, his alcohol addiction and the escapades in Mallorca. “I wasn’t far from death,” Ullrich said.

Ullrich had a serious accident in 2018 and caused negative headlines with his drug use, among other things. Three years earlier he had moved to Mallorca with his wife Sara and their three children. It was “primarily an escape from the gloomy German winter weather,” Ullrich said: “Eventually the crash followed – it couldn’t get that deep, even deeper.”

He sought treatment for his children

Ullrich was plagued by loneliness when his family abandoned him. The now 49-year-old started drinking. “Wine became whisky. First one bottle per day, later a maximum of two. It was a complete anesthetic,” said the Rostock resident. From then on, his finca developed into a “party place”, “at one point someone brought cocaine” and that “turned you from a human being into a monster in a very short time”, Ullrich admitted.

But when his wife Sara threatened to stop him from seeing his children, Ullrich relented. That was “the only reason” to “seek medical help,” he said: “I knew: I had to do something if I wanted to see her at all again.”

Cycling without doping is like shooting a knife

Ullrich also commented on the topic of doping. “Without helping, the widespread perception at the time was that it would be like going to a gunfight, only armed with a knife,” he said. Sentences that he never spoke so clearly at the time. But to protect those around him, he decided not to say anything, Ullrich said.

He now regrets this decision. “From today’s perspective, I should have spoken. It would have been very difficult for a brief moment, but after that life would have been easier,” Ullrich said, explaining: “Until now it has been a life of extremes. I was in heaven and I was in hell. Now I am back on earth, on my way to the center.” (AFP/dti)

Source : Blick