Researchers at Humboldt University and the University of Muenster have completed a 500-page historical report about the use of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs by Olympic athletes in West Germany. The findings have concluded that the West Germany government knew and accepted steroids as a necessary evil to compete at the international level.
West Germany provided federal funds to the Federal Institute of Sport Science which conducted research that included studies involving anabolic steroids. Researchers from the Institute shared this information with athletes in order to help level the playing field when competing against countries with state-sanctioned doping programs.
Humboldt University Professor Giselher Spitzer described steroid use in West Germany as “systemic doping” since there was a direct connnection between government-funded steroid research and the application of this research to steroid use by athletes.
“If you ask the witnesses of this time, for example Professor (Wildor) Hollmann of the German Sport University and others, they all say, ‘Yes, we knew the political system stood behind us.’ So that’s their view,” according to Spitzer.
Spitzer said that the role of the West German government (FRG) in athletic doping was categorically different than the East German (GDR) systematic doping program between 1972 and 1988. While West German officials weren’t oblivious to role of steroids in sports, they were not active participants.
By contrast, the GDR doping program was sanctioned at the highest level of the government and classified as an Official State Secret. The GDR sports ministry directly controlled the distribution of anabolic steroids to athletes. Steroids were a mandatory and integral part of the training process.
While the use of steroids in West Germany was widespread, it was by no means mandatory like it was in East Germany.
The East Germany doping program was much more organized and thorough. Hundreds of chemists, physicians and coaches worked together in unison to provide steroids to over 10,000 elite GDR athletes. These included the GDR favorite Oral Turinabol as well as Dianabol, Testosterone and Deca Durabolin.
West Germany may accepted steroid use as a necessary evil but stopped far short of creating a state-sponsored doping program like the GDR and Soviet Union.
Photo credit: Varbak.com
Source:
Associated Press. (January 25, 2012).Researchers: West Germany tolerated doping. Retrieved from http://www.universalsports.com/news-blogs/article/newsid=576590.html
