There have been many cases of doping
scandals in the world of sports. More
and more athletes are getting caught or simply coming forward confessing of
using illegal performing enhancing drugs.
One of the biggest doping scandals in history was the East Germany
doping scandal that went on from the late 1960’s to 1980’s. This started when the Berlin wall was built
to divide Germany from east and west.
East Germany wanted to increase their athletic reputation. The state
began to carry out a plan to get the best athletes for the Olympics and bring
home the gold.
The state recruited more than ten
thousand German athletes. Most of these athletes were from ages
thirteen to sixteen years old. In the
documentary, The Great Olympic Drug Scandal, one of the former Olympic medalist
says that they were treated like real stars but unfortunately they had no idea
about the plan they were about to execute.
This program was officially called
State Plan 14.25(cbc.ca). The
officials, coaches, and doctors that were part of this program were to produce
gold medalist by feeding their athletes performing-enhancing drugs. The athletes were fed these drugs with or
without their consent. Many of the
athletes were young girls who had not even reached puberty. These girls were fed testosterone, which
helped them with muscle building, made them stronger, and have more
endurance. They also gave the athletes
anabolic steroids, which have similar effects as testosterone in the body. These drugs had more impact on woman than on
men, so the girls were the first ones to start seeing changes in their bodies
as a result. Katharina Bullin, an
Olympic medalist says that they were given different vitamins and supplements
after their intense training, which included the drugs. These were administered with the vitamins so
the athletes would not suspect that they were being drugged. The coaches would tell their athletes to speak
up for any physical problem. The coaches
wanted to be seem trustworthy but in reality they wanted to be aware of any
side effect that would affect an athlete in winning in the Olympics. These
drugs guaranteed gold medals, so the coaches were so desperate that even gave
their top athletes double dosage of testosterone. 
As steroids started to get more popular
all around the world, the program became more intense. They increased their dosages and furthered
their research to get the best results from the steroids. At the Olympics, East Germany’s athletes were
the top in every sport. Unfortunately,
with all the medals came the side effects of the drugs. The girls started to see changes in their
bodies. They started to grow excessive
facial and body hair. They started to
gain weight and became aggressive. Their voice began deepened and were not
allowed to speak to the media so no suspicions would arise. A former athlete claims that her hands became
bigger as well as her nose. A lot of
these changes were reported to the doctors, but they were not allowed to tell
the athletes the reason for their body change.
Some of the girls started to question the changes and the “supplements”
they were being fed. Many of the athletes that kept asking questions became
dishonorably discharged and stripped from their medals.
Dr. Rainer Hartwich, who is an expert on
steroids, suspected there were drugs involved due to the sudden winnings and
big number of top athletes that all happened to be from East Germany. It wasn’t until after the Berlin wall was
removed ending communism that the systematic doping came to an end. Soon after, the entire plan came to
light. Sadly it was too late, the damage
was done and the athletes were severely damaged. There was a wide range of side effects from
depression and eating disorder to damage of vital organs such as the heart,
liver, and womb. Many of these athletes
had premature death. Many of the women
claim to have miscarriages and even cancer that was triggered by the
steroids. On the documentary, two of the athletes that
tell their story claimed that they were affected for life due to the steroid
abuse. One of the former athletes, Heidi
Krieger, claims that her body changed drastically because of the testosterone
that she felt she could no longer live in a woman’s body. A couple of years later had a sex change and
now is Andreas Krieger. Another former
athlete, Katharina Bullin, says that she stopped wearing feminine clothes
because she was publicly humiliated and confused for a man all the time. Her body and face features became similar to
a man’s. Due to the large muscles, her
bone structure on her legs got so distorted that she’s still not able to walk
right.
Out of all the people that were directly involved in the program only seventeen people were convicted for illegal doping. These included doctors and coaches. Only a small number of these people served time and the rest were simply fined after damaging the lives and health of more than ten thousand young athletes.
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