Drygalla gets the DRV Support

Nadja Drygalla

After a several hour hearing conducted by the German Rowing Association, Deutscher Ruderverband, the organisation’s president, Siegfried Kaidel, told the media on Tuesday that the Association stood behind Nadja Drygalla. She made the headlines during the Olympic rowing event when she was sent home after it was revealed that her boyfriend Michael Fischer – an ex-rower – had ties to the neo-Nazi movement in Germany. A spokesman for the German Olympic Committee also made a comment, saying that the investigation on the 23-year-old female rower had cleared her from having any links to right-wing political groups.

In a press release on the German Rowing Association’s website it says: ‘In a friendly, constructive atmosphere Siegfried Kaidel confirmed that the Association stands fully behind its athlete.’

Already last year, Drygalla had to leave the police force because of her relationship with Fischer. A lively debate broke out in Germany when Drygalla was forced to leave the Olympic Village in London. The rower received support from the German Defence Minister Thomas de Maizière, who told the magazine Der Spiegel: 'Must we demand that sportswomen and sportsmen reveal who they are friends with, what they think? Where does one draw the line?'