Four former East German swimming trainers and two sports doctors appeared in court in Berlin yesterday charged with taking part in the systematic doping of young swimmers.
The defendants, who are the first to face trial as a result of a wide-ranging investigation into the use of steroids among competitive swimmers, are accused of causing actual bodily harm to 19 female swimmers between 1974 and 1989, while they were still children or adolescents.
"The young sportswomen were not told what medication they were being given. If they or their parents asked the trainers or doctors, they were told untruthfully that they were vitamins," according to the prosecution.
Ms Karen Koenig was 10 years old when she was sent to a special sports school on account of her remarkable prowess as a swimmer. She broke the world record in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay in Moscow in 1984 and became European champion a year later before retiring from the sport in 1987, at the age of 18.
Ms Koenig says that she had no idea that she had been taking steroids until a former trainer asked her to take up swimming again in 1990. "Start swimming again. I still have a few blue ones in the cupboard," he told her.
Until that moment, Ms Koenig had been convinced that the little blue pills she swallowed almost every day of her swimming career were vitamin tablets.
"Nobody talked about it. They always said they were vitamin tablets. I believed that because it was so normal. It was a ritual procedure like brushing your teeth," she said.
Ms Koenig was surprised when her performance improved dramatically after she started taking the pills, so that she knocked two seconds off her 100-metre time in one year. But she put her success down to hours of tough training and, even when she noticed her own body changing, she never thought to blame the pills.
"I developed weight problems and a voracious appetite. I also became depressed and had to get treatment. My voice became deeper. I don't know what else is going to happen by way of side-effects," she said.
For East Germany's rulers, sport was one of the few areas of human endeavour where the drab, communist state could hope to outpace its wealthy, western neighbour. Promising athletes were groomed from childhood in special schools and sworn to secrecy about the details of their training.
"It was forbidden to talk about the training at home. The training methods were treated like a state secret. But the main goal was always to be better than the swimmers from West Germany," said Ms Koenig.
Under the leadership of Erich Mielke, the Stasi kept a close eye on the world of sport and worked closely with the doctors involved in the doping programme.
In 1975, under "State Plan 14.25", the government commissioned leading East German scientists to develop performance-enhancing drugs. Between 1984 and 1988, there were 21 government-financed doping studies in progress, at a cost of more than DM5 million a year.
Much of the scientists' work was devoted to developing ways of concealing the use of steroids and cheating drug tests at international competitions.
"The tablets were always stopped a couple of weeks before big competitions. Then they were given out again just before the competition. It's clear to me now that this was done to make the doping undetectable," Ms Koenig said.
