He won a bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics with the 4 × 7.5 km relay team.

In 1982 his wife fell ill and died, soon after which he switched to training.

Ullrich, who has a working class background and whose grandfather was a "passionate social democrat", was a direct candidate for the SPD in the 2021 German federal election.

He won his electoral constituency (Suhl – Schmalkalden-Meiningen – Hildburghausen – Sonneberg in Thuringia) with 33.5 %, making him a member of the 20th Bundestag.

The local election was observed closely by the German public because Ullrich ran against Hans-Georg Maaßen, the controversial former head of the German domestic intelligence service.