Germany’s Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich was admitted to a psychiatric hospital on Friday, after his brief detention for allegedly assaulting a prostitute.
The 44-year-old former cycling star was earlier in the day released on bail pending an investigation for possible attempted manslaughter.
However, once free, Ullrich suffered a panic attack, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
Photo: AFP
“Jan Ullrich was admitted to a psychiatric hospital on Friday night, where his state of health is being assessed by specialists,” a Frankfurt police spokesperson said yesterday.
“Due to his mental and physical state there was no other choice” but to transport him to a psychiatric unit by ambulance, the spokesperson said.
Friday’s incidents arose after the 1997 Tour de France champion had called on the services of a prostitute at the five-star Villa Kennedy Hotel in Frankfurt, Bild reported.
He then “attacked the 31-year-old escort lady in one of the hotel rooms after a dispute,” prosecutors and police said in a joint statement.
Ullrich allegedly had “so tightly choked her that her vision went black,” prosecutor Nadja Niesen said.
He put up a struggle as officers tried to detain him, the statement said, adding that “the accused was likely under the influence of alcohol and drugs.”
“The accused is under investigation for attempted manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. Investigations are not over,” they said.
Ullrich’s run-in with the law came just a week after his 24-hour detention in Spain, where he had sought to force his way into the Mallorca home of his neighbor, German actor Til Schweiger, and threatened him.
Ullrich’s latest woes came just hours after he arrived back in Germany to seek therapy for his alcohol and drug habit.
Born in former communist East Germany, Ullrich racked up his triumphs after reunification, turning him into a national hero.
He later also won Olympic gold in 2000, but failed to replicate his victory at the grueling French race, finishing for several years behind US cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Like Armstrong, who was subsequently stripped of all his seven Tour de France wins over doping, Ullrich was embroiled in allegations that he used performance-boosting substances.
The German was excluded from the 2006 Tour de France over his links to the Operation Puerto scandal that centered on disgraced doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, who gave performance-enhancing blood transfusions to top cyclists.
Ullrich retired from cycling in 2007 and in 2013 came clean about his doping past.
Since then, he has been struggling with drinking problems.
In 2014, he injured two people in a car crash in Switzerland and was charged with drunk driving.
He was convicted three years later over the case by a Swiss court. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison, but was able to convert that into a suspended sentence of four years plus a fine of 10,000 euros (US$11,423 at the current exchange rate).
Amid his latest woes, rival-turned-friend Armstrong offered his support earlier this week, Bild reported.
Ullrich’s lawyer, Wolfgang Hoppe, told the newspaper that Armstrong said he was “ready to immediately get into a plane with his doctor and come to Europe” to help the German.
“[Armstrong] said that the cycling community must hold together, but that what’s most important is that Jan first allows himself to be helped,” Hoppe said.
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