Speed skating Olympic champion
The Federal Constitutional Court upholds Pechstein’s complaint
Was successful with her constitutional complaint: Claudia Pechstein. Photo: Tom Weller/dpa
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Turnaround in the Pechstein case: For more than a decade, the speed skater has been fighting for compensation for a doping ban. A German civil court can now examine their claims.
Speed skating Olympic champion Claudia Pechstein still gets a chance to enforce compensation for pain and suffering and damages because of her two-year doping ban.
The Federal Constitutional Court overturned a judgment of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) from 2016, as announced on July 12 in Karlsruhe. Pechstein’s trial against the International Skating Union (ISU) for compensation in the millions can thus be continued before the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG). However, the outcome is still completely open. (Az. 1 BvR 2103/16)
Pechstein is suing the world association
The five-time Olympic champion was banned for two years by the World Skating Federation in February 2009 because of abnormal blood values. Pechstein denied any doping. Subsequent intensive investigations identified a blood anomaly inherited from the father as the reason for her increased values. Since then, the 50-year-old has sued the world association.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS had confirmed Pechstein’s sentence. The athlete had initially unsuccessfully defended herself against this before the Swiss federal courts. She also brought an action before the German civil courts. In 2015, the Munich Higher Regional Court decided in an interim judgment that it could also take this path in principle because an arbitration agreement that had been reached was void. However, the BGH had then ruled that the complaint was inadmissible as a whole. This judgment has now become irrelevant with the decision of the Constitutional Court.