Bruno Diethelm has been the national coach of mountain bikers and cross-country for ten years and followed Mathias Flückiger's career closely. In an interview with blue Sport, he speaks plainly about the proceedings against his former protégé.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Bruno Diethelm is the national coach of the Swiss mountain bikers between 2012 and 2022 and celebrates many successes with Nino Schurter, Mathias Flückiger and Co.
- Shortly before his dismissal at the end of 2022, Diethelm experienced the doping shock surrounding Flückiger at first hand. The 65-year-old talks to blue Sport about the case.
- Diethelm explains where mistakes were made and hopes that they will not be repeated in the future. He also makes it clear: "It would be nice if Swiss Cycling, SSI and Swiss Olympic sat down together, stood up and admitted their mistakes."
Bruno Diethelm has been the national coach of mountain bikers and cross-country athletes for over ten years and has achieved success after success with his protégés during this time. Under Diethelm, Switzerland won European Championship, World Championship and Olympic medals before the era came to a surprising end at the end of 2022.
Around six months before his departure, Diethelm experienced the case of Mathias Flückiger, who was banned in summer 2022 after allegedly testing positive for doping, at first hand. In an in-depth interview with blue Sport, Diethelm talks about the shock at the time, the mistakes he made and possible lessons for the future.
Bruno Diethelm about ...
... the moments after the bad news
"It was an unbelievable shock. I hope not many people have to experience it when it almost tears a person apart with pain. There was no time at all to clarify the situation. Mathias was in a very bad way, my main focus was on him.
There wasn't much I could do. I just asked around and tried to add up what I knew. It was important to me how Mathias was doing so that I could support him as much as possible. I kept visiting him, but it was difficult to help. First he had to get back on his feet and regain his confidence in this world. The help of his girlfriend and his brother was extremely important."
... the intervention of outsiders
"On the one hand, there was a lack of communication between Swiss Cycling and Swiss Sport Integrity (SSI) from the outside. Communication between these two parties was difficult. It was only thanks to the initiative of Matthias Kamber (former head of Antidoping Switzerland) that the case was properly rolled up and analyzed from A to Z. It was good that experienced people took it on. There were even scientists from abroad who got wind of the case and shared their findings and experiences. It was great that people from outside the company came forward and recognized early on that something was going wrong - even though they weren't involved."
... the mistakes of the SSI
"There is a protocol for atypical samples. The athlete should have been informed, but that didn't happen. Instead, it seemed to me that the SSI triggered the process without really getting behind it. Mistakes can happen, but there were so many - even before Mathias or Swiss Cycling were informed. But what has happened cannot be undone. My wish is that we learn from it.
The amount in Flückiger's sample is far too low for a positive sample. In fact, there are only three laboratories in the world that can even measure such small quantities: Lausanne, Cologne and one in America. If the sample had not ended up in Lausanne, nobody would have noticed anything. To communicate something like this as a positive doping sample is dangerous for the Swiss and for sport in general."
... the cooperation between Swiss Cycling, SSI and the disciplinary commission
"There are three parties who actually want the same thing but don't talk to each other. There must not be such chains of error and it must run safely. The fact that you can always detect even smaller quantities increases the risk of such disputes - actually in every sport."
... future improvements
"Clear processes and responsibilities would help. That would provide security, and it wouldn't be up to a single person to decide on the next steps in a difficult situation. It would therefore be helpful if there were guidelines or the opportunity to talk to people who are more involved in this topic. It can't be the case that the most senior person in an association simply has to deal with it and decide what the right thing to do is within a very short space of time."
... Hopes for the future
"I would have liked to have sat around a table together much earlier. And not with the aim of covering something up, but with the aim of creating clarity. Then the case would have been handled much faster and better for everyone.
It would now be nice if Swiss Cycling, SSI and Swiss Olympic could sit down together, analyze the case in detail and take measures for the future so that this doesn't happen again and trust in the processes is restored. This has not yet happened.
I think it's a shame when I read that SSI is still convinced in the media that they are right. A lot is expected of the athletes, they have to comply with all the rules, otherwise they face sanctions. Athletes try very hard, while mistakes like this happen behind the scenes. It would be good for the sport if people were prepared to admit mistakes.
... contact with Flückiger
We have contact from time to time. A huge burden has been lifted, but not all of it yet. He sometimes hears that he was lucky and got away with it thanks to procedural errors. That's not true. Mistakes have happened before, so it should never have come to this."
What cycling expert Henri Gammenthaler says about the Flückiger case
Henri Gammenthaler
Henri Gammenthaler analyzes cycling events for blue Sport. The Zurich native was once a rider himself and later a TV and radio pundit and commentator for the Tour de Suisse.
"Swiss Cycling did not have the courage to own up to its mistakes and apologize to Flückiger. Swiss Sports Integrity also claims that everything definitely went correctly and without error. Why couldn't the federations involved sit down with Flückiger to solve the problems? Untruths, assumptions and false reports could have been cleared up and a lot of money could have been saved. The damage to our image would have been less."
