EXCLUSIVE; Doped for a Gold medal – How Heidi became Andreas

Article 1 from Anti-Doping World, about the anti-doping year of 2000;

Susann Krieger knew the story of her half-brother only from the media. As Heidi Krieger he won in 1986 at the European Championships in shot put gold for the GDR (DDR). But years of doping left severe health and mental damage. The decision to live as a man saved his life. Heidi became Andreas. In a feature tells Susann Krieger of the approach to the unknown brother and goes with him to search for clues.

Summer 1986: 21.10 meters the ball flew. Over and over again, the television shows the scenes. Heidi Krieger from the DDR/GDR is European champion. The people cheer.

At the end of the 1990s the name Krieger is again present in the media. Andreas Krieger visits talk shows, gives interviews. His story stands for many doping victims in the GDR. However, the “Fall Warrior” is one of the most explosive.

Heidi Krieger, the European champion in the shot put in 1986, no longer exists. She decided to continue living as a man and get surgery. Heidi became Andreas.

Little blue pills

In the 1980s, Heidi Krieger received at the children and youth sports school by her coach at just under 16 years in addition to the vitamin supplements little blue pills as “supporting supplement”. They are packed in silver foil, without leaflet, to minimize the risk of injury, help it to regenerate better. In fact, it is the anabolic steroides Oral-Turinabol, which is administered without her knowledge in ever-increasing doses. Her achievements increase, but her body also changes, becoming more and more masculine.

In 1991, Heidi Krieger ended her sports career for health reasons.

She feels unwell in her skin, becomes depressed. An acquaintance finally explains what’s wrong with her and gives the state a name: transsexuality.

Six months after the operation, Andreas Krieger is summoned to testify before the “Central Investigative Office for Government and Association Crime” (ZERV). Only then is he informed about the effect of the blue pills and learns about the extent of systematic doping. It takes several years for Andreas to understand what has been done to his body.

When he testifies in the spring of 2000 against Manfred Ewald and Manfred Höppner, two main responsible persons of GDR sport, he takes a photo of Heidi and hands it to the judge:

… before we start here, I’ll give you a picture so you know who it is. […] This person, who you see in the photo, does not exist any more, she is dead.

Lothar Kipke, Manfred Ewald and Manfred Höppner was GDR’s doping chiefs.

Lothar Kipke (1928-) was sports physician in the GDR and author of the “State Plant Theme 14.25”. In 2000, at the he was sentenced to 15 months prison and a fine of 7,500 Deutsche Mark (= 3,250 Euro), the most severe punishment pronounced in the GDR doping affair.

PHOTO; Lothar Kipke (1928-) was sports physician in the GDR and author of the «State Plant Theme 14.25».

‘State plant theme 14.25‘ was the name of an extensive, organized and compulsory doping system. Its implementation was approved in June 1974 by the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – SED) and was based on the proposal of the GDR’s Power Sports Commission(Leistungssportkommission). Several institutions were obligated to participate: the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sport (“Forschungsinstitut für Körperkultur und Sport”) in Leipzig, the Central Institute of Microbiology and Experimental Therapy (Zentralinstitut für Mikrobiologie und experimentelle Therapie) in Jena, the Military Medical Academy Bad Saarow in the field of research (Militärmedizinische Akademie Bad Saarow im Bereich der Forschung) as well as the pharmaceutical companies “VEB Jenapharm” and the Pharmaceutical Plant Dresden (“Arzneimittelwerk Dresden”) as the manufacturers of the preparations used.

Mainly, anabolics such as Oral-Turinabol, Androstendion and Mestanolone were used, three substances that were developed in the GDR. Research after 1990 showed that more than four hundred doctors, trainers and officials were involved in the system.

The number of affected underage athletes was estimated at about ten thousand, two thousand of them subsequently had serious illnesses, tumors, heart defects, infertility, depression, bulimia, circulation and spinal problems. Some had even died, others anxiously awaited in doubt about the health problems their children would be born with.

During the “2000 doping process in Berlin” in 2000, Kipke was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his part in the body damage of female athletes and a fine of 7,500 Mark. During his career he had prescribed anabolic steroids to 58 underage swimmers. The case was brought before the court by a former DDR swimmers, who had to swallow doping daily during their sporting career. The underage girls did not know that the blue-colored pills were anabolics. Some of them later had health problems, others had children with physical abnormalities.

A former GDR swimmer born a son with clubfeet, another a blind child.

During the GDR regime, Kipke was not only one of the sports physicians of the East German swimming team DSSV, he also worked for the state security service Stasi under the cover name ‘Rolf’. In foreign countries he manifested himself as a fervent doping opponent. He even sat in the medical committee of the international swimming federation FINA.

At the “2000 trial in Berlin” he confessed the doping administration, but he immediately said that he did not know that the banned stimulants also gave negative side effects later in life. During a search in the Kipke garage, a complete file was found, which made the ‘Doping-Fahrplan für die Nationalmannschaft’ very clear. He had accurately kept track of whom he had provided, when and with what.

The top of the “GDR/DDR pyramid” were also condemned (Kipke), while top executive Manfred Ewald (1926-2002) and sports physician Manfred Höppner (1934-) received 22 and 18 months respectively.

 

 

From 1961 to 1988, Ewald chaired the GDR Gymnastics and Sports Federation (DTSB), as well as President of the East German Olympic Committee.

Höppner, for his part, was the “constructor” of the State-run doping scene. It was he who provided the preparations to doctors and trainers and for years he was deputy chairman of the Sports Medicine Service of the GDR (SMD) and chairman of the ‘Arbeitsgruppe unterstützende Mittel’. 

Both were charged with 142 crimes, especially in women who had enormous health problems due to years of hormonal doping. Total masculinisation, gynecological problems, miscarriage, infertility, excessive body hair and voice changes were countless.

The anabolics, especially Oral-Turinabol, also caused liver tumors and kidney damage.

They were well aware of what they were doing and accepted the side effects.

 

Anabolics to the minors.

The most serious accusation, however, was that they had imposed the preparations on minors. In addition, the trainers had to keep quiet to the athletes and their parents. The parents were told again and again that their children were given extra vitamins.

According to their sporting performances and according to their political integrity, the athletes were subdivided into an A, B or C category.

For Ewald, all this had only one goal: to win as many medals as possible for the GDR and with 160 Olympic victories he succeeded perfectly.

Under the motto ‘the end justifies the means’ he was willing to sacrifice the health of the children. Doping together with a hard training was a perfect combination and an unmistakable part of the successes. It is not for nothing that the training to become a sports doctor in the GDR lasted for five years, the entire support was based on centralized science.

Ewald was conditionally convicted to 22 months in prison, Höppner received 18 months conditionally.

Andreas Krieger today.

Today Andreas Krieger lives with his wife, former GDR swimmer Ute Krieger-Krause in Magdeburg. She is a former GDR swimmer who also took part in the 2000 trial. He met her during this doping trial in 2000 and married in 2002. The woman is for him “a lotto in the lottery with additional number,” he says.

His 1986 European Championship gold medal was donated by Andreas Krieger to the Doping Victims Aid Association, which converted him to a prize, a challenge cup awarded to people fighting to fight doping.

The experience we have made is that humans are manipulable and we have been manipulated and we are now carrying the result with us, so to speak, for the rest of our lives.

Andreas now runs a clothing shop in Magdeburg. He still has physical problems from the anabolic steroid treatment.

 

 

Sources; medicosport, wikipedia, mdr.de, zagria.blogspot