Heike Drechsler, the Olympic long jump champion, has admitted for the first time she took part in East Germany's doping programme.

The admission casts a shadow over her achievements in the early part of her career which included three world titles and three Olympic medals.

"We know now they gave us drugs," said Drechsler. "When the doctors said, `Take this, it is vitamins, they are good for you,' you believed them. I get sick when I think of it. We accepted that we had no other choice. Now when you think about it was so stupid."

More than 10 years have passed since Professor Werner Franke, who was appointed by the German parliament in 1990 to investigate East German scientific methods in sport, said Drechsler had been given the same drugs as Ben Johnson. He discovered Stasi secret police files documenting drug abuse in which Drechsler was given the codename W61. The W stood for weitsprung (long jump).

Before yesterday Drechsler had never publicly admitted taking drugs, though in 1995 she was ordered to pay £7,500 costs and convicted of perjury after losing a legal battle when suing Brigitte Berendonk, Franke's wife, who named Drechsler as a participant in the East German system.

After initially denying the accusation, published in Berendonk's book Doping Dokumente, Drechsler shifted her stance, saying that, if she had taken drugs, it was without her knowledge.

Now Drechsler has given in to the overwhelming evidence against her and conceded that she was given anabolic steroids throughout her career in East Germany, which documents show include the period before she won the world long jump title in 1983 as a 17-year-old.

Drechsler was considered a model citizen of the GDR. She was an unofficial agent of the Stasi and spied on her teammates. Drechsler, who once held a seat in East Germany's parliament, saw her popularity in the reunited Germany soar after she regained her Olympic long jump title in Sydney last year at the age of 35.

Drechsler's lustre has been partly restored by the tough anti-doping stance she has adopted since her East German days which includes calling for prison sentences for those who administer drugs.

Drechsler is now the public face of a health insurance company in Germany. She is also a big target for meeting organisers and will be appearing in the Norwich Union Indoor International in Glasgow on March 18th.