Rower quits over ‘neo-Nazi’ boyfriend

LONDON: German rower Nadja Drygalla is to leave the Olympic village in London, said the country’s Olympic committee, after press reports that her boyfriend was a member of a far-right group. “Today the management of the German Olympic committee received information about the private associates of the rower Nadja Drygalla,” said the head of the delegation Michael Vesper. Rowing officials spoke to the athlete, who affirmed her commitment to the ‘Olympic ideals’ but at the same time revealed that she ‘planned to quit the Olympic village so as not to be a burden on the team’, Vesper added. According to the German media, the rower is the girlfriend of a regional official of an openly neo-Nazi political movement in Rostock.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2012.