At one of the rare encounters, Frank Ullrich turned out to be a sportsman.

On the sidelines of a panel discussion in Memmingen, the SPD candidate shook hands with the CDU right-wing winger Hans-Georg Maaßen.

His opponent in the fight for directorship in the Bundestag in southern Thuringia remained seated, avoided eye contact, but did not withdraw his hand either.

For biathlon legend Ullrich (63), the world championships or the Olympic Games used to be the season's highlights, this year the election Sunday is the deadline.

For the Olympic champion of 1980, there is a duel against the controversial former constitutional protection chief Maaßen, which not only many sports fans are looking forward to with excitement.

And Ullrich is not the only gold medalist who wants to join the Bundestag.

In addition to Ullrich, two other Olympic champions have good prospects of a seat in the new parliament: If both Claudia Pechstein, the most successful German winter Olympic athlete, and the former professional track cyclist Jens Lehmann make it, three Olympic gold medal winners would be represented in the Bundestag for the first time.

Pechstein in a duel with Gysi

Political novice Pechstein (49) is in the middle of her preparation for Beijing 2022, where the speed skater wants to be the first athlete to compete in the eighth Olympic Winter Games, as a CDU candidate against political celebrities: Gregor Gysi, former chairman of Left, is considered a clear favorite in the Berlin constituency of Treptow-Köpenick, but Pechstein could move into the Bundestag for the first time as sixth on the state list.

For Lehmann (53) it would be a big disappointment if he did not defend his direct mandate in Leipzig.

Four years ago, the Olympic champion in the team time trial of 1992 and 2000 won there for the CDU, his work in the defense, petitions and sports committee is considered constructive.

Ruth Fuchs as a champion

In 1972, the javelin thrower Ruth Fuchs (PDS) was the first German with Olympic gold to win a mandate from the Bundestag. Since then, Lehmann was the only one who could do the same. If Ullrich is the next in line, that should cause a stir because of the duel with Maaßen far beyond the borders of Thuringia. In his statements before the election, he sounds like an old political streak: "Regardless of whether I win or not, in any case I will always stand up for the interests of the Thuringians," he told the world. Ullrich, who is striving for a place on the sports committee, also conveys this image on his homepage: “One of us

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One for us, ”is the slogan.

The sympathy values ​​should clearly be with the former biathlete, but whether that is enough for the direct mandate in the duel with Maaßen is questionable.

After all, the Greens even called on their supporters to vote for Ullrich (63) due to their own hopelessness in constituency 196 in order to prevent “a right-wing extremist vote from moving into the Bundestag”, as Federal Managing Director Michael Kellner announced.