OREANDA-NEWS. According to the German edition Spiegel, sports doctor Mark Schmidt, who is considered the main person involved in a high-profile case of the use of illegal drugs and doping methods in Germany and Austria, was sentenced on Friday to 4 years and 10 months in prison.

The doping case is being tried at the Munich District Court. Schmidt was also banned from continuing to engage in professional activities for at least three years.

Earlier, a doctor, a resident of Erfurt, admitted that since 2012 he had been giving illegal drugs to athletes, primarily athletes involved in winter sports and cycling. The man claimed that he "did not profit from doping." In addition, Schmidt believes that there was no threat to the health of the athletes.

On February 27, 2019, at the World Ski Championships in Seefeld, Austrian law enforcement officers, together with the German prosecutor's office, detained two athletes of the Austrian national ski team Max Hauke and Dominik Baldauf, Estonians Karel Tammjärv and Andreas Veerpalu, and also Kazakh skier Alexei Poltoranin. In addition to the athletes, two members of a doping-related criminal group were detained.

In the course of an investigation into suspected commercial sports fraud and the use of illegal drugs and doping methods in Germany, a group associated with Mark Schmidt was revealed. The criminals operated from Erfurt, Germany and for several years provided doping for athletes.