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SPORTSSaturday 28 November 2015

Former East German athlete testifies to the evils of doping

EDDIE PELLS In this May 26, 2000, file photo, Andreas Krieger arrives to be a witness at a doping trial in Ber- when she was enrolled into
AP National Writer lin. Once part of the medically engineered East German sports powerhouse of the 1980s, Heidi the Sports School for Chil-
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Krieger is now Andreas Krieger, and his is an eye-opening reminder of the evils of state-sponsored dren and Youth in Berlin.
(AP) — Heidi Krieger didn’t doping in sports. Krieger described “State
ask questions when her Plan 1425” as a “systematic
coaches added a regimen Associated Press plan that monitored every
of blue pills to the handful step, from the research to
of vitamins she was already he was part of was called end to ensure the substanc- Krieger never made the the athlete.” The drug of
taking every day. “State Plan 1425.” In some es wouldn’t be detected. Olympics. The goal, he said, choice was called Oral-
She didn’t object that her ways, it mirrors what has Already, Russia’s anti-dop- was to be the first woman Turinabol, a then-unde-
daily workouts were noth- been taking place more ing agency has been de- to send the shot put more tectable steroid that, com-
ing more than extended recently in Russia, where certified and the Russian than 23 meters. Krieger bined with birth-control pills
weight-lifting sessions with sports and government of- track team has been sus- threw it 21.1 meters at the given to Krieger, helped her
no true practice in the ficials have been accused pended — its eligibility for 1986 European Champion- increase muscle mass while
techniques of shot put. of pressuring athletes into next year’s Rio Games in ships, and the gold medal steadily stealing away signs
She liked winning, enjoyed taking performance-en- question while the country she won there was the of womanhood.
the travel, the attention hancing drugs, then mak- tries to build a clean pro- highlight of a career that Krieger said he took more
and all the other perks that ing payoffs on the other gram. began, in earnest, in 1979 than double the amount
came with the success — of steroids as Ben Johnson,
so even though she shot the doped sprinter whose
up from 152 pounds (69 fall from grace came dur-
kilograms) to 230 pounds ing the 1988 Olympics.
(104 kg) over the span of There were humiliations:
two years, she did what her The strange looks she got at
coaches asked and stuck the airport when she asked
with the program. where the ladies’ room
Once part of the steroid- was. The whispers of “Here
addled East German sports comes Hormone Heidi”
powerhouse of the 1980s, when she headed out to
Heidi Krieger is now An- the field.
dreas Krieger — and his is But success came, and the
an eye-opening reminder perks were there.
of the evils of state-spon- For a young woman in
sored doping in sports. Communist East Germa-
“In some ways, they played ny, the trips to the West to
God without including me compete, replete with fan-
or asking me,” Krieger said cy hotels and lavish meals,
in an interview he recently were highlights. She got an
taped with the German apartment — something
Anti-Doping Agency. uncommon for someone
Krieger said the program her age.q

IAAF clears Radcliffe, defends its blood testing program

In this file photo dated Sunday, April 26, 2015, British athlete Pau- response to allegations by the International Associa- the IAAF said.
la Radcliffe after she was presented with a lifetime achievement British and German media tion of Athletics Federa- The IAAF said it followed up
award during the 35th London Marathon. outlets that it had ignored tions said it had a duty to by testing Radcliffe’s urine
and tolerated rampant set the record straight on and blood samples for EPO
Associated Press blood doping in the sport. the blood doping issue. and blood transfusions,
“The IAAF is not compla- “The IAAF cannot sit idly by and all the results came
STEPHEN WILSON claims that it failed to act cent about doping in while public confidence in back negative. It said it col-
AP Sports Writer on hundreds of suspicious its sport,” the federation its willingness to protect the lected 14 blood samples
LONDON (AP) — The IAAF blood tests, saying the ac- said. “It will continue to use integrity of its sport is under- from Radcliffe for screening
cleared marathon world cusations lacked “any sci- every tool at its disposal to mined by allegations of in- purposes from 2001 to 2008.
record-holder Paula Rad- entific or legal basis.” fight doping and protect action/incompetence that “The circumstances in
cliffe of doping allegations Track and field’s govern- clean athletes.” are based on bad scien- which Ms. Radcliffe came
on Friday and rejected ing body issued a 38-page The statement was re- tific and legal argument,” to be publicly accused are
leased a few days before it said. truly shocking,” the IAAF
IAAF President Sebastian The IAAF singled out the said, adding that she was
Coe faces a British parlia- case of Radcliffe, saying “hounded remorselessly”
mentary hearing into the the three-time London Mar- by the media until she felt
doping allegations made athon winner was publicly compelled to publicly de-
by The Sunday Times news- accused of doping “based fend herself.
paper and German broad- on the gross misinterpreta- “Obviously there’s been
caster ARD. tion of raw and incomplete damage done to my repu-
Already reeling from rev- data.” tation, and to the reputa-
elations of government- Elevated blood value read- tion of the sport, and that’s
backed doping in Russia ings in some of Radcliffe’s why I took the stand I did
and criminal corruption tests had “clearly plau- against this,” Radcliffe said
charges against former sible” explanations that Friday after the release of
president Lamine Diack, were “entirely innocent,” the IAAF statement. q