08x01 - Doping for Gold

[bunniefuu]

At the height of the cold w*r,
female east German athletes

conquered the world.

Woman: They were very strong.
They were very fast.

We thought they were machines.

Announcer: But the victories
were tainted by a state-run

steroid program that put
national glory above
human safety.

Woman: It was systematic doping.
It was cheating.

...injections, pills.
It was abuse.

Announcer: Today the doped
athletes are paying

a heavy price.

"Doping for gold" on
"secrets of the dead."

Captioning made possible by
U.S. department of education

and friends of nci

sportscaster: The favorite,
the world-record holder,

the east German girl.

Narrator: They rose from
oblivion and conquered
the world.

Man: Oh, and that one's
a long, long throw.

Narrator: A generation of
female athletes who seemed to

win every event they entered.

In the 1970s east Germany
presented itself as a nation

of sports fanatics--
healthy members

of a socialist paradise.

But beneath the robust
surface lay a dark

and dangerous secret.

Woman: They just bound their
shirts and it looked so odd

because they were bigger
than some of the men.

Narrator: Their unusual size
and strength were created by

a national doping program that
demanded victory at all costs.

It was German; It was orderly;
It was written up.

Narrator: And it came at a
terrible price for the women

who were forced
to participate.

Man: These changes of
the physique of a woman,

this disastrous bodily hair
growth, to have the deepening

of the voice.

Woman: It was
systematic doping.

It was cheating
and you know what?

There are consequences
when you cheat.

Narrator: Decades later,
with doping once again

dominating the news,
the athletes are finally

speaking out, revealing a tale
of experimentation, cruelty,

and intimidation unparalleled
in the history of sports.

In 1961, communist east Germany
built a wall to stop its

citizens from
fleeing to the west.

Anyone attempting to
defect was shot on sight.

Even planning an escape was
grounds for imprisonment.

By the seventies, the Berlin
wall was part of a fortified

border that split
Germany in two.

Officially, it kept the west
out, but in reality, it kept

east German citizens in while
their government sought ways

to demonstrate communist
superiority to the rest

of the world.

[Man speaking German]

Narrator: Rare glimpses of life
behind the wall suggested

a sporting revolution.

Talented children were
hand-picked for special

sports schools.

Coaches and doctors were
employed full-time to

train them.

Sports festivals became highly
anticipated national events.

As a promising 10-year-old,
ute krause joined

the magdeburg school to be
trained as a swimmer.

[Speaking German]

Translator: I had this idea that
we'd be doing sport all day.

Instead of reading and writing
and arithmetic, we'd spend

the whole day dancing,
ice skating,

doing gymnastics, swimming.

That was my fantasy, and
I thought it was going to

be amazing.

Narrator: 10-year-old Rica
reinisch left her family to go

to the dresden school
as a boarder.

Translator:
I was over the moon.

For me,
it was something really

amazing, and that's also
how they sold it to us.

Narrator: The student-athletes
participated in major sports

shows and festivals.

The best of the best got to
compete in the Spartacus games

in leipzig, a showcase of the
country's physical health.

[Speaking German]

Translator: I can remember it
was really something

to go to the Spartacus games
and especially to be

a prize winner.

Narrator: Shows like these
were carefully choreographed

to build support for the
socialist state and distract

the east Germans from the
economic boom on the other

side of the wall.

Marchers paid homage to
leaders who promised them

secure jobs and welfare
perks as a reward

for their athletic prowess.

Successful athletes enjoyed
freedoms not available to

their fellow citizens.

This was the communist
equivalent of fame and fortune.

They became the public face
of the German

Democratic Republic.

[Speaking German]

Translator: You get to
travel abroad to go to

capitalist countries.

I went to Italy when I was 15.

Going to Italy, that was
unheard of, impossible

for the average gdr citizen.

Narrator: Katharina bullin
joined the dynamo club

in Berlin when she was 13.

Two years later, she
was playing volleyball

for the junior national team.

[Bullin speaking German]

I had privileges.

I got great food:
Bananas, oranges.

You just couldn't
get them normally.

Sometimes I felt embarrassed
and would sneak food

home with me.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: But good food
and training were only

the beginning.

By 1974 and with the Montreal
Olympics only 2 years away,

party leaders met with the
east German sports performance

committee to decide how best
to guarantee gold medals

and international glory.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: What they came
up with was state plan

theme 1425.

The protocol was based on
the work of chemists

and pharmacologists at a
secret lab in leipzig.

For 6 years, the scientists
had been testing male hormones

on one of their female olympic
stars, a shot-putter named

margitta gummel.

Bolstered by the hormones,
which were given to her

in a pill called oral turinabol,
margitta improved

her throws by more than 8 feet
between the '68 and '72 games.

Oral turinabol, or o.T., was
an anabolic steroid derived

from testosterone.

Produced by the state-run
pharmaceutical company

jenapharm, it would now
be given to other

promising athletes.

O.T. And other anabolic
steroids increase muscle mass

and hasten recovery time,
allowing athletes to train

harder and build
up more strength.

And because they are similar
to testosterone, they have

a greater impact on women,
who have less real

testosterone in their
bodies to begin with.

[Speaking German]

By 1974,
manfred hoeppner was the east

German sports program's
chief doctor.

His job was to ensure that
sports doctors across

the country receive drugs
for their athletes.

To prevent questions,
the athletes were not told

what pills they were getting.

Club doctors like
ulrich sunder took care

of the distribution.

[Speaking German]

Translator: The word "doping"
just wasn't used.

In the gdr, the word
"doping" didn't exist.

These were supporting drugs.
They supported training.

That made it
sound much better.

Narrator: For the youngest
athletes, the pills were

slipped in with other
less potent supplements.

[Reinisch speaking German]

We usually got the tablets
after very hard water

training sessions.

Vitamin c, vitamin b,
potassium, calcium, magnesium.

All kinds of pills.

It was a real cupful.

[Krause speaking German]

There was an unspoken taboo
about asking questions

about these things.

Because if you ask questions,
you were put down with nasty

remarks or given a
real telling off.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: Many of the girls
had barely reached puberty

when they began receiving
the hormone pills.

Their parents, too,
were kept in the dark.

It was only talked about when
the parents themselves asked,

and even then they were
given evasive answers.

And they didn't ask
questions because, of course,

they believed that doctors
were supervising everything.

So how could there be
any serious consequences?

Narrator: As the '76 games
drew closer, east German

expectations were high.

3,000 coaches had 10,000
young athletes in their care.

Despite a chronic shortage of
hard currency, the government

poured money into gymnastics,
track and field, cycling,

rowing, swimming,
and volleyball.

And the anabolic steroids
continued to flow.

The drugs were now being given
to athletes throughout

the olympic training program.

To maximize muscle strength,
the steroids were combined

with a punishing
training regimen.

Bullin: School, training,
school, training.

You had no time.

In fact, the word
"free time" didn't exist.

Everything was an order.

"Put on your hat or you'll
be punished," "wear a thermal

vest or you'll be punished,"
"after the 1st of October,

don't eat ice cream in public
or you'll be punished."

Narrator: The pressure was on.

Coaches and doctors were
contractually obligated to

produce medals.

Each club had to clearly
define targets for each sport

of what they had to deliver
in the world championships or

at olympic games.

Afterwards you took stock.

For instance, in athletics
the club tsc Berlin had to win

a gold and a silver medal.

The targets were set right
at the start

of the olympic cycle.

Narrator: As the athletes
trained, the scientists

at the sports institute in
leipzig worked to refine their

understanding of the drugs.

They studied
athletic performance

and the biochemistry of
movement, always looking

for ways to make the
steroids more effective.

Ute krause remembers the
lung capacity test well.

Krause: We swimmers hated it.

We were given a strange
gas mask to wear.

The hose went down our backs.

We had to get in the flume
and swim and swim against the

current until a buzzer went.

[Speaking German]

It didn't take long before you
ran out of air under the mask

and your lungs and your
muscles and everything hurt.

Narrator: Ironically,
the party used a dose

of capitalist incentive to
ensure that coaches pushed

their athletes
to the extremes.

[Speaking German]

This was the basis for how
much coaches were paid.

Because their pay was
determined by how well

the athletes performed
in competition.

Reinisch: It was really
exhausting because sometimes

you swam till you felt like
your arms were dragging along

the bottom of the pool.

It was dreadful.

Narrator: But it paid off.

The Montreal Olympics was the
first major international test

for the gdr's doping program.

And the east German athletes
exceeded all expectations.

East Germany won an incredible
40 gold medals, 6 more than

the powerful Americans.

The female swimmers stood out.

East German women won 11 out
of 13 events, crushing the

U.S. favorites in the pool.

Woman: They were very strong
women. They were very fast.

We thought they were machines.

Here were of America's best
athletes ever put together

on a team and every single day
the east German women were

winning every, every event.

Narrator: The losses were heart
breaking to the Americans

and suspicions of east
German cheating ran rampant.

The U.S. swimmers only managed
one gold: In the freestyle

relay, the very last race.

Boglioli: We had the 4 of us
women that stood up on those

blocks and were not gonna
be denied a gold medal,

no matter...

No matter what.

Narrator: The Americans got
their gold, but in Berlin,

gdr leaders were
celebrating a grander victory.

East Germany had excelled
on the international stage.

The doping program had worked
and the government was taking

vigilant steps to ensure
its continued success.

The entire operation was now
closely guarded by the stasi,

the east German security
police, commanded by Soviet

trained Erik milke.

[Speaking German]

Narrator:
Sports doctors were forced
to sign a confidentiality

agreement that forbade
them from discussing doping

with anyone who
had not signed.

Stasi informers watched and
listened to ensure adherence

to the pledge.

Dr. rainer hartwich was a
party member and an expert

on steroids.

Not surprisingly, his
skills were in high demand.

[Speaking German]

Sport was on area in which
this small state, the gdr,

could really outrun
the rest of the world.

Narrator: Hartwich joined
jenapharm as head

of clinical research.

He liased with the leipzig
scientists and chief sports

doctor, manfred hoeppner.

Hartwich: The secrecy was
important because if these

things had come out,
everyone else would have

done it, too.

And the gdr would have lost
its head start in sport.

Narrator: Dr. hartwich was one
of more than 3,000 stasi moles

within the sports system.

Scientists, coaches, and even
athletes who secretly reported

every move they and
their colleagues made.

The web of informers meant
the athletes had to be wary

of what they said.

Probing questions or
dissent were immediately

and harshly punished.

Once a girl at the tsc club
had dared to say something

along the lines of "what
are they doing to us?"

She was more skeptical
and less innocent than us.

And then I heard that she
was going to be dishonorably

discharged, kicked out and
stripped of everything.

That was really,
really terrible.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: With hindsight,
a dishonorable discharge might

have been a small
price to pay.

Doctors already knew that
the drugs could wreak havoc

on the girls'
reproductive systems.

They kept the knowledge
secret but began giving doped

athletes contraceptives as
soon as they hit puberty.

Rica reinisch was
started at age 12.

[Reinisch speaking German]

The doctor explained that I
should go on the pill so as my

periods would be regular.

It would help my body get used
to the menstrual cycle more

quickly, which
made sense to me.

Narrator: The birth control
pills served 2 purposes: They

kept the athletes training by
giving them regular periods

and they protected the entire
system from the Russian

roulette of steroid induced
pregnancy complications.

[Sunder speaking German]

It was clear if you're on
anabolic steroids, you have to

be on the pill as well because
medical literature said that

things like deformities or
other disorders could occur.

Narrator: Reproductive
problems weren't the only

side effects.

The leipzig doctors were
uncovering other risks,

including heart disease
and liver damage.

[Hartwich speaking German]

We knew that certain liver
functions could be affected,

so we did talk about these
things and I'm sure they were

discussed by those
responsible, too, but they

were not put off.

Narrator: The consequences
we sometimes deadly.

In 1972,
16-year-old swimmer

jorg siefers was found
dead in the pool.

[Krause speaking German]

Somehow it was never explained
or talked about officially.

Later on, we asked the old
athletes and one of them told

me that he'd had some kind of
cold or infection and that's

why his heart stopped.

But the whole thing remained
a bit of a mystery.

Narrator: At the time,
word circulated that jorg had

simply drowned.

It would be decades before the
truth was finally uncovered.

Announcer: First round of
this javelin competition:

Tessa sanderson.

Narrator: Meanwhile,
the doping continued.

In 1977, the European
athletics cup final

in helsinki looked like
another route for the gdr.

British champion Tessa
sanderson lost the javelin

competition to her east German
rival, olympic gold medalist

Ruth fuchs.

Announcer: Ruth fuchs,
the leader in the javelin.

Woman: She was fast.

It's like she was doing
everything different

than everybody else was.

You know, she'd come around
the corner with a javelin,

make a sound...Ba ba!

And the aggression she had
in her throws were

just phenomenal.

Announcer: Ilona slupianek.

Narrator: But then came a
setback for the east Germans.

20-year-old shot-putter ilona
slupianek failed a drug test.

The doping program was
plunged into crisis.

Standard gdr protocol required
that doping be curtailed

2 weeks prior to competition,
enough time for the athletes'

bodies to eliminate all
traces of the drugs.

But driven by the need to turn
out winners, coaches had been

handing out pills until
the very last minute.

In east Berlin, it was decreed
that from then on, athletes

would be prescreened
before they left

for international events.

Better they be discovered
at home than

on the world's stage.

Urine samples were sent
to a lab near dresden.

If their test came back
positive, athletes would be

scratched from the
upcoming competition.

The athletes were told that
the prescreening would protect

them from false accusations
by jealous competitors.

[Bullin speaking German]

The story was always the same,
that there were nasty

capitalist athletes who
were using doping drugs

to get ahead.

And back then I thought,
"that's terrible" because it's

not about fairness
anymore, then, is it?

It would never have crossed
my mind that they were putting

things in our food
and our shots.

We were so trusting.

Narrator: The prescreening
test results were communicated

directly to chief sports
doctor, manfred hoeppner.

Code numbers for each athlete
meant only hoeppner knew who

they were.

[Speaking German]

In dresden, Rica reinisch
was showing remarkable talent

in the backstroke.

She was assigned to uwe
neumann, the school's leading

coach, who quickly became
like a father to her.

He's shown me, said, "if you
have problems, if you have

concerns, you can come
to me anytime.

I'm here for you.
I'm here for your concerns,
for your rise, etc."

[Speaking German]

Narrator: What Rica didn't
know was that neumann was

a stasi informer.

He told his handler that
Rica was one of his top hopes

for the 1980 olympic games.

The drugs and
training were working.

But Rica and many of the
other girls were noticing some

strange changes
in their bodies.

[Krause speaking German]

I put on weight very quickly,
10, 15 kilos within

a few months.

What astonished me and
frightened and confused me was

that I was swimming much
faster when my body was

actually heavier
and more cumbersome.

Narrator: The steroids helped
the athletes train longer

and harder, increasing
their muscle mass.

The transformations
were dramatic.

Reinisch: "My God, child,
you've got fat, and what's

happened to your voice?"

"Rica, is that you?

What a deep voice you've got."

My nose became huge.
Then my hands.

During puberty, my
hands changed a lot.

My nickname was toilet seat.

Sometimes I couldn't fit into
any trousers because my thighs

were so big, but I put it
down to those 50 hours

of training I did.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: Dr. hoeppner also
started getting reports

about unusual hair growth.

He examined one girl himself,
reporting to the stasi that

she had excessive hair on her
face, inner thighs, and below

her navel.

[Hoeppner speaking German]

Hoeppner recommended that
swimmers with deep voices be

barred from giving interviews
and banned from jobs where

their voices could be heard.

Molecular biologist Werner
franke has studied the reports

of the east German doctors.

They document disturbing
genital abnormalities

in addition to
the hair growth.

Man: They have, for example,
clitoris growth, body hair

growth, male type hair growth
on the back, for example,

or up on the forefront.

Narrator: The consequences
of the drug use were obvious,

disturbing, and
sometimes life threatening.

But athletes were never
told the cause of their

health problems.

Instead, they were simply
dropped from the sports system

if their bodies broke down.

Ute krause had her sights
set on the olympic team,

but in response to her
doping related weight gain,

she developed an eating
disorder and failed

to qualify.

It was a bitter blow.

[Krause speaking German]

The Olympics had a special
magic for all young people

back then and for
me particularly.

So it was very hard for me to
understand that I couldn't do

it anymore.

Narrator: Ute wasn't the
only swimmer to drop out.

Verena rossberg was also
an olympic hopeful.

She struggled with the
constant pressure of training.

[Speaking German]

Some days would be good.

Other days, she would say "the
coach wasn't happy with us."

It was always up and down.

They were just children,
after all.

Narrator: Verena was good
friends with Rica reinisch.

They often spent time
together after training.

[Reinisch speaking German]

Reinisch: You know, we talked
about boys, fashion, music.

We talked about everything,
but never about training.

Narrator: Despite the hard
training, verena's times

failed to improve and she quit
swimming just before the 1980

moscow games.

16 years later, at age 32,
she died of breast cancer.

She left behind 2 young
children and many questions.

Rica has always wondered if
there was a connection between

verena's swimming
and her early death.

She believes the cancer
could have been caused by the

anabolic steroids that verena
and the others were forced

to ingest.

[Speaking German]

We did know that they were
getting something and verena,

ah, I can't remember when
exactly, but she always talked

about vitamin drinks.

Reinisch: Because she probably
didn't know any different.

Narrator: Copies of coach uwe
neumann's stasi reports show

that he held both Rica
and verena in high regard.

They were his most
promising young swimmers.

Reinisch: "Verena joins a
training group as a new member

who as a very active swimmer
developed very favorably over

the past few years."

Narrator: The stasi files
also reveal that verena, Rica,

and other top swimmers
had been heavily doped.

But could the drugs have
caused verena's cancer?

Maria rossberg hopes an
analysis of tissue from her

daughter's tumor will
provide an answer.

[Speaking German]

If the suspicions that the
doping could have actually

triggered the cancer is
correct, that would be

terrible for me.

Narrator: By the late
seventies, east German

athletics were thriving
and party leaders boasted

a political stability
and economic growth.

But beneath the veneer of
prosperity, citizens faced

severe shortages of
basic consumer goods.

As times got tough, the
stasi tightened its grip

on the population.

[Breathing heavily]

Narrator: With the 1980
Olympics approaching,

the state once again expected
its top athletes to spark

nationalist fever
with their success.

The pressure was especially
intense at the stasi's own

dynamo sports club in Berlin,

where katharina bullin
lived and trained.

Katharina broke a bone in
her foot, but the team doctor

insisted she get back to
practice before the cast

was even off her leg.

She stormed in and completely
overruled the hospital doctor.

She ordered what had to be
done and when I had to

be back on the court.

[Sünder speaking German]

No medals, no money.

If an athlete who could have
won gold was injured two weeks

before the game, that was
tough luck for the coach.

He would get zilch.

It meant 4 years of hard work
for nothing.

Man: It's taken a month for
the relay of 5,000 runners to

bring the flame from
Olympia in grease to moscow.

Narrator:
The pressure paid off,

and the victories
arrived in droves.

With the U.S. boycotting the
games in protest of the Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan,
the east Germans won more

medals than any other
nation but the Russians.

Once again, east German
swimmers dominated,

setting 6 world records.

15-year-old Rica reinisch
won 3 golds.

Reinisch: When I stood on the
podium after the 100-meter

backstroke, I stood there
right at the top and thought,

"you really are an
olympic winner."

I couldn't really
grasp what that meant.

I could have embraced
the entire world.

Narrator: Katharina
also tasted success.

The east German volleyball
team made it to the finals

for the first time, though
they had to settle for silver.

[Bullin speaking German]

Well, I still get
goose bumps today.

It's an experience
that stays with you.

It's then that you forget
all the pain, all the sweat.

It's really rewarding because
you are getting international

recognition from
millions of people.

Narrator: Moscow labs tested
all competitors for banned

drugs, but not one failed.

The east Germans had learned
their lesson, stopping the use

of oral steroids long enough
before the games

to ensure clean tests.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: The gdr
doctors replaced the pills

with injections of pure
artificial testosterone,

which kept hormone
levels high.

They knew current tests
couldn't differentiate between

natural testosterone and
artificial, so their athletes

couldn't get caught.

Wilhelm schänzer worked at the
olympic committee's leading

antidoping lab
in west Germany.

They had a good idea
what was going on.

In the seventies and eighties,
there were no doping controls

outside competitions,
so people used to dope

with hard steroids like
methandienone and stanozolol

in the run-up to competitions.

They stopped taking these
in time and switched to

testosterone immediately
ahead of the games.

Narrator: Rica had heard about
male hormones from foreign

athletes but had no idea
she herself was taking them,

even though some of her
older teammates seemed

better informed.

[Reinisch speaking German]

The first time it was crazy
was during the olympic games,

where older athletes were
making jokes about it, saying,

"oh, it's time to go
and get our shots."

And ignorant as I was, I went
and refused to have the jab

before the 4x100 meter relay,
and afterwards, my coach came

and said, "Rica, either you
let them give you the stuff,

or your 4 years of training
have been for nothing,"

and that's when I knew
that something wasn't right.

Narrator: Katharina, too,
was being pumped with drugs.

The doctors said she
needed them to cope

with her injuries.

Drips, injections, pills--it
was all normal, nothing

strange about it, and I
wouldn't have known what to

ask because I wasn't
skeptical at all.

Narrator: After the games were
over, the side effects began

to catch up with her.

Suddenly, we were growing
beards, and things got really

bad after the Olympics.

I became really aggressive,
probably because we weren't

being doped anymore.

Now I know that this was
also a withdrawal symptom.

Narrator: Back in Berlin,

party leaders celebrated
once again.

Chairman honecker gave
out awards for service

to the fatherland.

But the athletes were
beginning to pay

for their victories.

The hormones were taking their
toll on Rica reinisch's still

developing teenage body.

I had enflamed ovaries every
3 months until it became

a chronic infection.

Sometimes, the pain was so
bad, I couldn't swim anymore.

Narrator: At age 16,
Rica collapsed

during a competition.

Here parents took her to an
outside gynecologist, who gave

them an ultimatum.

"If your daughter wants
to have children someday

"and wants to grow up healthy,

she should stop competitive
sports now."

Narrator: Rica's family
took dramatic action.

She was quickly extricated
from the influence of her

coach and mentor.

[Reinisch speaking German]

My mother went to the pool
and screamed her head off

at uwe neumann.

We weren't even allowed
to say what we knew.

"From your clutches," she said.

"I will rescue my daughter
from your clutches."

The swimming pool
went dead quiet.

Everyone around us
was taken aback.

That was, so to speak, my
last official deed

in the swimming pool.

Narrator: By the 1980s,
steroid use was growing

throughout the sports world,
and scientists were fighting

a constant battle to catch up
with ever more sophisticated

doping techniques.

At the pan American games in
1993, organizers asked

west German scientists
to set up a lab to test

for ill*gal drug use.

The results were startling.

[Schänzer speaking German]

And the interesting thing was
that specifically at these

games a large number of
positive tests became public.

At first, we mostly caught
weightlifters, but then also

American athletes in
particular, so after 3 days,

half the U.S. team left,
and when they were asked by

journalists at the airport why
they were leaving, apparently

they'd all caught a cold.

Narrator: Steroids were
becoming pervasive, and all

athletes were affected.

Javelin thrower
Tessa sanderson was beaten

time and again by admitted
steroid user Ruth fuchs.

It wasn't until the '84
games in L.A., which

the east Germans boycotted, that
Tessa finally won her gold.

She did it clean, but
even she was tempted.

Sanderson: I think some of
the British athletes did come

under some pressure
because, you know,

people approached me.

Had I not had the grilling
that I'd had from my coach,

had I not been really overly
confident in my talent,

maybe because I wanted to win
so badly, maybe I would have

said, "well, ok. Right.
I'll have a go."

[Speaking German]

Narrator: The opportunity
was present, but there were

differences between
the east German methods

and everybody else's.

Franke: Doping in the west was
always a clandestine thing.

It was in small circles,
so it had nothing

of the dimension
and the thoroughness

it had in the east.

Doping in the gdr was
different from the doping

in the west of the world,
but it was also different from

the doping in other
parts of the east.

It was German.

It was orderly,
it was bureaucratic,

it was written up.

Narrator: Yet despite the
bureaucracy, or perhaps

because of it, the east
Germans were able to keep

their doping a secret.

In may of 1985, east Berlin
hosted the international

olympic committee for its
90th general assembly.

Delegates had no idea that
less than 100 Miles away

in leipzig gdr scientists were
working harder than ever to

cheat the system.

One new drug they developed
called sts 646 caused male

characteristics in women at
a rate 16 times that

of oral turinabol.

Sts 646 was never approved
for human consumption,

yet for years it was
manufactured by jenapharm

and distributed to athletes
through ranier hartwich's

clinical research department.

[Hartwich speaking German]

I didn't know what these
substances did, but then I saw

that they were being fed to
young people nonetheless,

and for me, that was the point
at which I couldn't go along

with it anymore.

Narrator: Hartwich eventually
filed a complaint with his

stasi handler.

[Speaking German]

[Speaking German]

Narrator: His
criticism caused a stir,

but ultimately, chief of sport
manfred ewald insisted

the drugs were necessary
and ordered 63,000

additional tablets.

Shot-putter Heidi krieger could
well have been a recipient.

She trained at the same
facility at katharina bullin,

the dynamo club in Berlin.

Heidi won a gold medal with a
throw of 69.2 feet at the 1986

European athletics
championships.

Her medical records show that
during the period leading up

to the tournament she
was given massive doses

of androgenic steroids.

The drugs are called
androgenic because they

stimulate masculine
sexual characteristics.

Heidi krieger did really get
loads of androgenic hormones,

more than Ben Johnson got as
a male, so with loads

of androgenic hormones,
there were no other

possibility that in that body
the male development took off.

[Speaking German]

Narrator: Heidi's body
was transformed, though

at the beginning she
was slow to truly notice

the differences.

For years, she struggled
with her sexuality.

Then in 1997, she underwent
a sex change operation

and changed her
name to Andreas.

She didn't feel she
had much choice.

[Speaking German]

I didn't find it unlikely
or particularly unpleasant

because probably I was
already caught up in this

male/female thing.

I chose to have surgery
because I couldn't live

in the body
of a woman anymore.

Narrator: Heidi's training
regimen in the mid-eighties

was so ambitious, she was
lifting more than most

male athletes.

Krieger: These are my
training diaries from 1986.

I once worked out that I
lifted more than 100 tons

in two weeks.

Narrator: As people noticed
the changes in her body,

the dynamo club became
her only refuge.

[Krieger speaking German]

I stopped going for walks or
to the shops because passersby

in the street would call
me nasty names like

"f*gg*t, g*y pig."

They picked on me, and
that's when I said to myself,

"I'll just stay here
in the sports club.

I'll make due with what
I've got here," because I was

so scared of being
bullied in the street.

Narrator: The strain
on Heidi's body grew.

She stopped competing before
the 1988 Olympics because

of irreversible damage
to her hips and thighs.

She was only 22.

For the next decade,
Heidi battled her body.

Not until she became Andreas
did she get more comfortable

in her own skin.

In 2002 after a two-year
romance, Andreas married

ex-swimmer ute krause.

Both continue to have
health problems stemming

from their steroid use.

Ute still wrestles with
bulimia and depression.

Katharina bullin had to stop
playing volleyball in 1981

because of her injuries.

Like Andreas, she has
struggled to come to terms

with her sexual identity.

Bullin: I didn't start to
look like a man overnight.

It happened gradually.

And whether I wore
a dress or a skirt,

makeup or jewelry, it
got worse and worse.

They called me
a tr*nsv*stite or g*y,

and it shocked me.

Narrator: Today, katharina
no longer tries to conceal

her altered physique.

She's given up on
feminine clothes.

Bullin: It is very masculine,
but I've had to deal with it,

but I am still tortured
by it because people never

see me as katharina.

Narrator: This former olympic
athlete has had 13 operations

and lives in constant pain.

Missing a kneecap,
she struggles even to walk.

Her injuries are typical of
many doped female athletes,

whose bodies cannot
support the stresses from

the steroid-assisted training.

Franke: Here you come to
a working load, which will not

be thinkable without
these androgenic drugs.

You body, your joints,
your tendons, et cetera are

not built for such loads,
especially in the female body.

Narrator: The east Germans
knew the risks, but they

continued to dope their
athletes until bigger issues

overtook them.

Man: Just before 10:00,
the moment berliners have

waited 28 years for.

Narrator: In 1989, the Berlin
wall came down, bringing

an abrupt end to
the oppressive socialist state.

[Chanting in German]

As citizens ransacked
the secret stasi buildings,

the extent of its control
over daily life became clear,

and the truth about the
olympic doping scandal slowly

began to emerge.

Today, the evidence of gdr
doping still lies in the old

stasi headquarters.

Over 20 years, an estimated
10,000 athletes were doped,

most without their knowledge.

When katharina requested her
medical files, she discovered

the doctors had left many
of hernjuries untreated.

Bullin: Reading these files
made my world fall apart.

You can't imagine how
deeply it hurts to be abused

for years, to realize now
that they lied to me

and betrayed my trust.

I was so, so furious.

Narrator: Document after
document showed that the stasi

covered up not only the
sophisticated doping program

but also its impact on
the health of the athletes.

For U.S. swimmer Wendy boglioli,
a free and united Germany meant

she could finally
dig up the truth

about the east German women
who beat her in Montreal.

Boglioli: The freedom to be
able to go from side to the

other side on a train and not
to have to go through that--I

can't imagine what that
was like for people.

Narrator: For more than 3
decades, Wendy has longed

for the truth and perhaps
even an apology

for her lost medals and glory.

Boglioli: It was all
such a big secret.

We didn't know what this
country was about, we didn't

know what the swimmers were
about, we didn't know what the

Olympics meant to them because
from our perspective it

couldn't possibly have meant
to them what it meant to us.

Narrator: East German freestyler
Petra thümer disagrees.

She won two goals at the
Montreal games, and even

though she knows now that she
was doped, she still believes

her victories were well-earned.

Hello.
Hallo.

You look so good.

I just love that.

Narrator: Time has aged
the two rivals,

but the competitiveness
is still there.

Boglioli: Really why I came
here, as Americans, um,

30 years ago, we were told
that the entire east German

team were on steroids,
they all were on steroids.

That's what we heard
before Montreal.

[Speaking German]

It is difficult
to answer this
question.

I was very young
back then when
I started swimming

and when I joined
the national team.

I didn't know
anything back then.

It wasn't clear to
me then the extent

of what they were
doing with us.

I also have
a question.

You trained
as hard as we did.

Did you use anything
other than training?

No, no. Definitely not.

I know our 23 women
on our United States
olympic team

in '76 was not
a part of any of that.

Had we been, we
probably would have won.

Yes, yes, ok.

[Speaking German]

I won't allege
that anyone
took anything,

but it's easy to
say today that
nothing was taken

because there
is no proof.

I won't let anyone
take this success
away from me,

this hard-won
success.

I spent many years in
performance sports.

I loved swimming and
to work hard for it.

Narrator: Despite all
that's been revealed

about the clandestine program,
Petra is reluctant to condemn

her coaches and doctors,
but she has no long-term

damage from the drugs.

That's you
all over.

Narrator: Others
aren't so lucky.

Only now is the full scope
of steroid-related health

problems finally
coming to light.

Sports historian
giselher spitzer has just

completed a study of more than
50 east German athletes.

The results corroborate
earlier findings and catalog

long-term damage ranging from
cancer, depression and eating

disorders, to liver
and heart disease.

[Speaking German]

Spitzer: 1 of 4 in this group
has very big heart problems.

A big part has changes
of the liver.

More than 10% of this group
have cancer, and it was

possible to find new side
effects, which are not known.

Narrator: Side effects like
self-mutilation, miscarriages,

still births,
and birth defects.

Rica reinisch has
a heart condition

and has miscarried twice.

Reischlin: You're in pain,
abdominal pain, and then it

starts to come out.

You're helpless.

You can't do
anything to change it.

It just happens.

Something is lost.

A life that was supposed
to grow inside you is

suddenly lost.

It's the worst thing that
can happen to a woman.

Narrator: But at least
Rica herself survived.

An autopsy report found
after east Germany's collapse

revealed that 16-year-old
swimmer jörg sieferts had been

suffering from an enlarged
heart and liver problems

when he drowned.

The stasi had
deleted his files.

Pages from the official
supporters are missing,

so in that time, I personally
think, they destroyed the data

to avoid to have a doping death.

Narrator: Other deaths,
like that of swimmer

verena rossberg, are still
under investigation.

Even before she died of breast
cancer in 1996, research had

shown that cancer can be
triggered by anabolic steroids.

But verena's mother
is still waiting to find out

whether her tumor showed signs
of being steroid-induced.

[Franke speaking German]

Narrator: Unfortunately,
the results are inconclusive.

If there had been any molecular
evidence of a connection,

it was destroyed by the
cancer, but even without the

smoking g*n, Professor franke
believes there is a link.

He feels that because of the
risk the doped athletes should

have been better monitored.

Franke: She should have been
supervised by yearly

diagnostic checkups,
so with careful eyes

so that a potential tumor that
grows is discovered much

earlier, and that, of course,
is life-saving.

[Speaking German]

When you learn like this
that they gave it to young

children, as young as 14
and 15, it's really...

It's really criminal.

I can't call it anything else.

Narrator: 3 years after verena
died, her coach uwe neumann

was one of 70 people
convicted for ill*gal doping.

But only a few, including
sports chief manfred ewald

and chief sports doctor
manfred höppner, have actually

been brought to public trial.

Spitzer: Many of these medical
doctors or coaches had one

simple motive, and the motive
was to earn money, to be

important, to be someone,
and they had no risk

because they were not
responsible to the athletes,

and the stasi covered them.

Narrator: None of those
convicted went to prison,

and only two have ever spoken
publicly about their role

in the doping.

One of those two
is ulrich sünder.

We feared that we'd be
disgraced because what we'd

been doing was against
doctors' ethics and against

the principles of medicine.

Even those responsible,
those in the public eye like

herr ewald and herr höppner
got off relatively lightly.

Narrator: Despite all the
evidence that has come out,

many communities still value
their medals and cherish

their records.

Athletes like Rica, who came
forward to testify, remain

in the minority.

Rica, now married with two
children, is not popular

at her old club.

[Speaking German]

This is where my photo was.

Mine and birgit wälder's
have gone.

Probably because I
blew the whistle.

Narrator: Other athletes
are less critical.

Javelin thrower Ruth fuchs
has openly admitted to using

steroids but doesn't
denounce the system

that made her a star.

Today, fuchs is an mp in
the German parliament.

Her long-time rival
Tessa sanderson

believes that no matter how

sophisticated drug
testing gets, if there's

an incentive to win,
there will always be cheating.

Recent headlines bear her out.

Though there may never be
another doping program on par

with the east Germans',
drugs continue to haunt

professional sports.

I think people will try
and beat the system always,

always, always.

As long as commercial
involvement is there,

and that's big time now
for manufacturers

and sporting manufacturers, they
will try.

Individuals who are taking
performance-enhancing drugs,

where does it end?

Because you have to look in
the mirror every single day,

and you have to know that
you did this on your own.

Narrator: In the seventies
and eighties, doping propelled

a small nation from obscurity
to the global stage,

but for many of the athletes
who were sacrificed

on the altar of victory,
the experience has left

nothing but tarnished
medals and painful scars.

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