How the west answered to the East German doping practice:

The Freiburg exampleProf. Dr. Gerhard Treutlein

Aarhus, 29 October 2013

Organized Sport: Structural differences

FRGFederal republic/ministry

of the Interior

Federal states/regions

Autonomous Sport (DSB/DOSB)

AutonomousFédérations

Organized Non-responsabilit

y

FranceCentralized republic/

Ministry of youth and sports

Regions/départements

Sports: Dependant structures

Organized Responsability

Differences concerning the interest of politics in the sport: fifties - today

• 1954: World championship of football, champion: Germany: No German minister in Bern

• Today: Statesmen are always present

Clear position of the sports medecine federation in the fifties

„The German federation of sports medicine believes that each drug - effective or not - should be considered as doping if consumed before the race with the intention to boost performance“ (vgl. Ruhemann, 1953, p. 26).

Importance of motivation/intention of the athlete: „ The decisive point is the intention with which the drug is given and not the medication itself“ (Ruhemann, 1953, p. 26)

Doping and sports medicine

FRGDoping:

Development bottom – up

Expérimentation Ask for help Interdiction of

advertising for the doctors (till 2004)

Development of gurus

GDRDoping:

development top – down

prescription by the government

Doping = a taboo topic

Systematic doping of nearly all top athletes

attempt to present medals as tokens of value of the state

Development of the problem

• Decision 1966: Munich – organisor of the Olympic Games 1972

• 1968: Mexiko - Olympic Games in high altitude

• 1969: Recognition of the GDR by the IOC

• Munic 1972: The GDR wins a lot of medals

performance enhancing by any means“In 1976; an outsider of the federation offered to the swimmers representing West Germany a method to improve the position of the body in the water; according to him, it could help the swimmers be faster. The method consisted in pumping air inside the intestine through the anus. Several high-ranking specialists evaluated the method and the head of the commission for high-level sports, Mr Helmut Meyer, gave that information to people who might be interested. The famous specialist in sports medicine, Prof. Dr. Nöcker tested the method himself. Another famous doctor, Prof. Dr. Keul, president of the scientific commission of the national Olympic committee said that this method was not detrimental to the swimmer’s health. Dr. Donike, who later became the director of the national doping control centre in Cologne, confirmed that the method was not against the existing doping rules. The responsible for the high-level sports in the German ministry was ready to give the DM 250 000 (around €125 000) the creator of the method was asking for. The heads of the Federation agreed to a DM 100 000 ( about € 50 000) fine if confidentiality was breached ( if information was leaked to the media). The general secretary of the national Olympic committee, Mr Walter Tröger, and the general secretary of the German Sports Federation (DSB), Mr Walter Gieseler, had been informed. The doctors of the West-German Olympic team offered to help pump the air through the anuses of the swimmers. Only one of the heads, Mr Fallak, spoke against using this method. The other people in charge pressured the heads and the coaches into using it. Very few of them refused.

Growing importance of the GDR in sports

Ol. Games 1972 (Munic): GDR 66 medals = third place, FRG fourth place

Ol. Games 1976 (Montréal): GDR 90 medal = second place(third United States, fourth FRG)

Reaction of the FRG-minister: „The number of medals won at the international level should not be considered only as an indicator of the performance of a nation, but also as an indicator of the quality of the political system in question "

Expectations (Inauguration of the institute of sports medicine, university

of Freiburg, 1976)• Prof. Dr. Keul ( Institute Director ) : "In the

next months, we will set our special interest to the possibilities to influence the ability to produce performance drugs , that means : what is possible , what we can implement and that can be useful for the athlete without injuring their health. "

• Dr. Gerhard Groß ( government representative) : "I know your position : you say that the use of substances that stimulate the performances is acceptable if there is no danger to health. The interior minister basically is sharing your position. We can not deny the things that athletes in other countries have been successfully tested as an aid to training and competitions without any danger to the health of athletes . This assessment is inevitable if we want to stay in the race among the world's best in the world of sport . And we want to. "

Research - application: Testosterone

• Augmentation of training charges• Since 1982, Keul has tried to cancel

testosterone from the list of forbidden drugs.

• Planification of a big research project (1983), supposed to prove the ineffectiveness of testosterone for the recuperation (-> research and application!)

• Utilisation of top level athletes as research subjects (some have refused to take part)

• Publication by the media in 1990 -> scandal (falsification of the results)

The roles of Keul et Klümper

• Keul – successor of Reindell – got the first chair of sports medecine in FRG in 1973: organizer, president and member of the several commissions

• Klümper: activist, some years more than 2000 patients

Both complied with the expectations of the federal and regional governments (medails)

The years after the reunification 1990

• The dogs are barking but the caravan continues to move on …

• The chiefs of the caravan: doping doctors, politicians, medias and the public expectating medals.

• In western Germany no doping doctor ever lost his permission

Which is our vision for the future for the competion sports and for

the destiny of the athletes?