Faust's Gold: Inside The East German Doping Machine by Ungerleider Ph.D. Steven

Author:Ungerleider Ph.D., Steven [Ungerleider Ph.D., Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466891852
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

16

The Showdown at High Noon

In August of 1998, East met West in a dramatic showdown in a wood-paneled courtroom in Berlin. Two sports medicine doctors of the former East Germany stood before a judge and explained how they systematically administered steroids to young girls, Olympic swim hopefuls of the GDR.

Dr. Dorit Rösler, fifty years old, told the court in disquieting detail how certain athletes received blue pills on one day, pink ones on other days. “We documented all of this: the pills, the time of day, the training regimens. It was all recorded,” she said, choking back emotion. The chilling confession echoed throughout the courtroom filled with lawyers, doctors, experts from the fields of sport and medicine, and the media. The echo was heard throughout Germany and rebounded to the courtroom gallery filled with athletes who had been the subjects of this calculated medical experiment.

The spectators heard Dr. Rösler finish her story. And then, in a startling twist, her eyes brimming with tears, Rösler turned to several athletes. “I can only repeat my profound regret,” she said, her voice trembling. “I was far too obedient. We were pressured into producing for the political leadership. We had to create international champions for the glory of the communist sporting machine,” she cried.

* * *

Rösler’s colleague, Dr. Ulrich Sünder, also testified the same day, asserting, “We had a political function in the struggle between the two systems. We went along with this struggle without questioning the dangers, the fallout.” Sünder pleaded guilty to inflicting bodily harm on young teenage athletes and was sentenced to a jail term and a small fine. But in his heart, the sixty-year-old orthopedic surgeon didn’t really believe he deserved more than a light slap on the wrist. “I was the chief of the Sports Medical Service, sort of a supervisor,” he said with an air of arrogance in February of 2000 from his home outside Berlin. “I really didn’t have much to do with giving pills or sticking needles into young arms,” he asserted. “I just took orders from the top guns and passed along the training protocols to the swim doctors and other sports trainers.”

Since 1971, Dr. Ulrich Sünder had supervised the massive buildup of GDR Olympic superiority across fourteen different sports. His was a middle-management position, just mid-level enough to enable him to shift the blame to both the top officials and the doctors who actually performed the dirty work. “I can only be sentenced once, so now I can testify against the others, but my work in court is finished,” he said dispassionately.

As Sünder saw it, some athletes had a very positive experience in the GDR, while others left sport and were bitter. “Some of our elite athletes knew they were being doped,” he explained, and “since they were doing well in competition, it was no problem. On the other hand, others didn’t train well, didn’t compete well, and didn’t tolerate the drugs very well, so they left in bitterness.” He claimed that many parents

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