Manfred Donike

Manfred Donike was a non-Olympian cyclist, competing in the 1960 and 1961 Tour de France, but is most famous as a chemist and for his work in the fight against doping, for which he was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver in 1995. In 1977 he was appointed director of the Institute of Biochemistry at the Sports University in Cologne, where he was instrumental in the development of drug tests still in use today. Worldwide standards in the sample preparation and the analytical methods are still based in many parts on his ideas, suggestions and experiences. Donike was the leading doping expert who testified against the sprinter Ben Johnson in the 1988 sprint scandal. Donike died following a heart attack during a flight from Frankfurt am Main to Johannesburg.

His son Manfred collected 14 national titles in cycling, mainly in the Madison with Uwe Messerschmidt. Between 1984-89 they won 21 six-day races and claimed 21. Donike later became a sports administrator in the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and a member of the jury in the Tour de France and undertook further events in Germany, such as veing organizer of the cycling race “Rund um Köln” (Tour Around Cologne). He died at the age of 42 also from a heart attack. Manfred Donike’s further son, Alexander, also became a cycling official in the UCI, of which Manfred senior served as an advisory member from 1983-91.