Another prominent athlete has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs: Udo Beyer, one of the best ever shot putters who competed for the former GDR and won the Olympic title in 1976.
Sandra Kadelka, herself a child growing up inside the GDR sports system, didn’t quite make it to international stardom as a diver, but she wanted to show the different sides of that particular sport system – that there was more to it than just doping. No doubt that is the case, but the fact that her one and a half hour documentary “Einzelkämpfer” (“lone fighter”) includes footage of a former Olympic champion, Udo Beyer, who for the first time admits to doping during his career, will inevitably have the effect of focusing the attention again on that aspect of the most successful sports system ever.
The fact that Beyer used performance enhancing drugs has been known since 1991 when Brigitte Berendonk published her book Doping-Dokumente – Von der Forschung zum Betrug, which includes documents showing steroid dosages of various prominent GDR sports stars, including those of Beyer.
But now we have a confession, though it comes without an apology.
In the film he says he made a conscious decision to take the steroids, that was his right, and he knew what was going on. But he maintains he was the deserved Olympic champion back in 1976, because “I was the best in that competition.” Perhaps, or probably, what he is alluding to here is that everyone else in East and West was doping at the time, and therefore there was a level playing field, at least for the elite athletes in his sport.
And he claims: “Doping and supplements make up perhaps 2-3% of the performance, the rest is hard work. And if you are not trained properly they can give you as many pills as you like. Then you might at best expand like a sponge or something like that, but you’ll never be a good athlete.” A valid point, but not exactly what many would have hoped for, namely some sign of remorse, and certainly not a helpful argument in the fight against doping.
He told the German newspaper “Bild” that he believes the fight against doping will never be successful: “In 50 years we’ll still be talking about the next generation of substances. Performance sports will always be trying to stretch the boundaries.”
Other prominent athletes featured in the film are GDR sprint stars Ines Geipel, who has for many years been active in the fight for the rights of the victims of the former GDR sports system, and current 400m world record holder Marita Koch, who according to the above-mentioned work by Berendonk had also been administered steroids during her career.
Sources: Leichtathletik.de (15/2/2013); Süddeutsche (14/2/2013), Berliner Kurier (15/2/2013), Bild.de (13/2/2013)
Translations of quotes are mine.