Marcel Kittel and the German cycling federation released a statement today claiming the sprinter was quoted out of context from an interview ahead of the World Championships road race in which his comments were interpreted to mean that Bradley Wiggins and other asthma sufferers should compete in the Paralympics.
"I distance myself entirely from this report which takes things totally out of context and say again very clearly that I have the greatest respect for the performance of the disabled athletes," Kittel is quoted in the statement distributed Friday by the Bund Deutscher Radfahrer (German Cycling Federation).
As reported previously by Cyclingnews, an article from the German news agency DPA titled, "Critic on Wiggins: 'That's why we have the Paralympics'", claimed Kittel suggested that someone with Wiggins’ ailments should be competing in para-sport.
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The German federation says Kittel’s statements came in response to a question that asked generally about TUEs and did not mention Wiggins.
"The name Wiggins was never mentioned at all in the question," the statement read. "In answering, Kittel made a comparison between disabled sport and non-disabled sport, to make clear that there is a serious difference between a healthy world-class athlete and one who is ill and takes various medications.
"The Bund Deutscher Radfahrer and Marcel Kittel distance themselves as strongly as possible from this DPA article."
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