Bobsled pusher Simon Wulff is back on the team of four-time Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich following his doping suspension. Wulff, known for his sprinting prowess, tested positive for methylhexanamine following the victorious World Cup in Altenberg in 2024. The substance is permitted in training but prohibited in competition. Wulff has consistently denied knowingly taking the substance. He was subsequently suspended for 21 months, through September 2026. He is now allowed to train and compete again as part of record-holding world champion Friedrich’s team. “I can honestly say that to this day I have no idea how it got into my body. We didn’t find anything—it was just there. We couldn’t prove how it got in,” Wulff told MDR. After grueling solo training sessions and the uncertainty surrounding the legal outcome, the 2.02-meter-tall athlete is now ready to compete again. But the competition is fierce. After Friedrich’s longtime rival and two-time Olympic champion Johannes Lochner retired following the 2026 Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Saxon recruited Lochner’s pusher, Georg Fleischhauer. The 37-year-old is currently considered the world’s best pusher. But 25-year-old Wulff was well aware of the challenge. “For Georg and me, it’s clear on our list that we want to win the two-man and four-man events. In the end, the faster one will push, and that’s how we’ll head into the winter,” said Wulff. For Friedrich, it’s a perfect situation. He can switch to top-level competition in the two-man bobsled races and has both of them on board in the premier four-man bobsled class, after Alexander Schüller switched to Thuringian pilot Hans-Peter Hannighofer. Matthias Sommer and Felix Straub remained with Pirna-based pilot Friedrich. In addition, Rupert Schenk joined the record-holding world champion from Adam Ammour’s team. Copyright 2026, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reservedA Perfect Situation for Pilot Friedrich
