The ISU confirms “a mutual agreement” to “solve” its dispute on anti -doping standards with Claudia Pechstein

Berlin, 4 Mar. (DPA/EP) –

The International Skating Union (ISU) on Tuesday has confirmed its agreement reached with the German Claudia Pechstein, ice speed skater, in a 16 -year dispute about anti -doping standards and that reached the Constitutional Court of Germany.

“The parties have reached a mutual agreement to resolve the litigation in a spirit of conciliation, which will allow them to focus on the future development of sport,” the ISU said in an official statement.

Pechstein, 53, is the most laureate Winter Olympic athlete in Germany with nine medals, five of them gold. He was disabled for two years in 2009 by blood doping, due to suspicious values ​​in his biological passport.

The German skateboard never failed an anti -doping control and commented that the tests had shown that the high levels of reticulocytes in their biological passport were the result of a blood anemia called spherocytosis, inherited from their father.

After the Sports Arbitration Court (TAS) confirmed in 2011 the sanction of the ISU, Pechstein appealed to civil justice. In October, a regional court in Munich proposed an agreement after the Constitutional Court of Germany returned the case after nine years.

Pechstein demanded the ISU for damages, worth 8.4 million euros, ensuring that the sanction received was unfair. The ISU pointed out on Tuesday that Pechstein and his father were recently tested in a Swiss hospital, determining that Claudia “suffers a slight form of dehydrated hereditary stomatocytosis (DHS).”

The skater lawyers warned last October that their represented would accept compensation for about half of the sum, provided that the ISU admitted “that it was wrong” by sanctioning it.

The statement of this Tuesday did not include such recognition, but the ISU did praise “the sports achievements” of Pechstein and thanked “his future contribution to the development of athletes and the sport of speed skating.”