Munich (Germany) (AFP)

Doctor Mark Schmidt, mastermind of the blood doping network dismantled in 2019 during Operation "Aderlass", confessed Tuesday during his trial in Munich, saying that doping was "on the agenda" for sportspeople who want to win.

In a statement read by his lawyers, the doctor claimed to have doped athletes since 2012 and to have acted out of fascination with high performance sport, much more than out of concern for financial gain.

He did not reveal the names of athletes who were not already mentioned in the investigation.

"Why I decided to practice blood doping, I do not remember any more", he told the court, "doping is on the agenda if we want to be successful".

He also assures that he acted with the permanent concern not to endanger the health of the athletes he treated - "it was very important for me" -, mainly in Nordic skiing and cycling, according to the elements of the indictment.

The doctor described himself as a man "fascinated by high-level sport", and not by money: "In the end I was not making a profit, I always saw it as a hobby", he assures. he, indicating that he requested 5,000 euros per year for his blood sampling and reinjection operations, and sometimes received bonuses when athletes won races or medals.

Dr Schmidt, born into a family of sportsmen and himself a student of alpine skiing sport-study in his youth, appears with four accomplices, including his father.

Hearings are scheduled until December and the verdict is expected to be known before Christmas.

The case had publically erupted on February 27, 2019, when Austrian police raided the site of the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Tyrol.

Five athletes were arrested on the spot and Mark Schmidt was arrested the same day by German police in Erfurt (center), as part of an operation dubbed by investigators "Aderlass" ("bloodletting" in German).

© 2020 AFP