Doping in sport—a warning from history

Abstract

East German athletes who were doped to win gold medals in 1976 Olympics now struggle with chronic health problems. Domhnall Macauley reviews a new documentary

Sport is tough, mean, and uncompromising. With national, social, and political gains for an emerging nation in the postwar era, sport was an obvious playground to express superiority. The German Democratic Republic looked coldly at what was required and did it. Potential medal winners were selected at an early age for sports school, trained, and prepared systematically. Coaches were rewarded by performance, and every aspect of the athletes' progress was recorded. East German athletes were prepared, organised, and comprehensively monitored throughout their sporting career. It was no surprise, therefore, that systematic drug use was part of this preparation. In 1974 “sports theme plan 1425” began with the aim of achieving medals in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. The East German team won 40 gold medals, and its female swimmers, in particular, were dominant, winning 11 of the 13 events.

This programme charted the lives of individual athletes and the price they paid for sporting achievement. Ute Krause and Rica Reinisch were swimmers, and Katharina Bullin was a volleyball player. Ute described their training, the physiological tests, the vitamin drinks, and the pills they were given. She also described the changes to her body and how this eventually led to an eating disorder and her leaving the sport.

Rica was an incredibly successful athlete, winning three gold medals in swimming at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 aged 15. Athletes were given oral anabolic steroids until the time of competition but were injected with testosterone during competition as it was then undetectable. She initially refused to have the injections before the relay event but was pressurised by her coach. Shortly afterwards she developed gynaecological problems, and the following year left the sport on the medical advice of a gynaecologist from outside the sporting system.

Katharina also described the androgenic changes to her body, her problems with identity, and how she has now given up trying to disguise her masculine features. She also described the catalogue of injuries she sustained and how she is now in constant pain and has difficulty walking.

The story of Heide Kreiger was the most dramatic. She won a gold medal as a shot putter at the 1986 European Athletic Championships while taking huge doses of anabolic steroids. This had inevitable androgenic effects. She struggled with her sexuality, dropped out of sport at age 22, changed sex nine years later to become Andreas, and married Ute in 2004.

These were some of the casualties of this remarkable and incredibly successful sporting experiment, and they had little choice but to participate. In some aspects they had a privileged life—opportunity for international travel, valued positions in society, and good living conditions—when average citizens had a very basic existence. As in many areas of achievement, it is the personal stories behind the stardom that have the greatest impact. These were the stories of women athletes, haunted by their past and paying a price.

It is the involuntary and systematic abuse of underage athletes that hits hardest. These athletes, recruited from as young as 10 years old, did not know what medication they were taking and were discouraged from asking and, although they did notice changes in their bodies and voices, were reluctant to question authority. Nor did their parents ask, as they believed their children were being medically supervised. The girls were also given oral contraceptives from an early age.

Sports doctors and coaches were aware of the physical changes caused by doping with anabolic steroids and documented the side effects. Dr Rainer Hartwich, director of clinical research at Jenapharm, where the anabolic steroids were manufactured, pointed out that the coaches and authorities were aware of the problems. The sports doctors had signed a confidentiality agreement, monitored by the East German secret police, the Stasi. They made no protest, and 70 of them were later convicted of illegal doping.

For a brief moment, we had a glimpse of a particularly interesting issue—the role of these doctors and their ethical position and responsibilities. They participated in the doping “to earn money, be important, to be someone.” One of the few doctors to speak out openly, Dr Ulrich Sünder, an area sports doctor in Berlin from 1973-90, said that they were afraid they would be struck off as what they were doing was “against doctors' ethics and the principles of medical care.” He thought they got off relatively lightly. But, all too quickly, the moment passed, and we were left wondering where those doctors are now and how they feel about their role.

What this programme described is history. Hidden in the small print are the brief footnotes that record the flotsam and jetsam of top sport, the wasted lives of some athletes and early deaths due to doping. Perhaps it is a little unfair to judge history by current standards. But doping remains a part of sport. It may not be as organised and systematic on a national level, but every new season brings further reports of athletes testing positive for drugs. How many doped athletes will there be in Beijing and later in London? What price will they pay to satisfy our demands that their performances be faster, higher, and longer?

Athletes, recruited from as young as 10 years old, did not know what medication they were taking and were discouraged from asking