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Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan was awarded a place in the 2024 Paris Olympics by the IOC on Friday after she was disqualified at the world championships for refusing to shake the hand of her Russian opponent.
It’s really sad.
East Germany was infamous for it too. After the wall fell, a lot of athletes found out they were infertile, developed bone diseases, developed cancers, some even changed sex. Roland Schmidt, a weight lifter, developed huge breasts. Shot putter Heidi Krug was forced to change sex.
Some of them knew they were doped. Others were doped against their will or even without them knowing. They took the vitamin pills the doctor gave them, that’s all the knew. They were ofen literal children when it started, as young as 8.
I’ve heard rumors about this, and I doubt it. Especially when there was an American athlete who claimed that’s what happened to her…
But I’m sure it has happened over history and my god that must be heart breaking, the people you put your full trust into has betrayed that and both put you are risk, but destroyed your credibility when found out. Fucking heart breaking.
East Germany was an authoritarian state with state controlled media and propaganda. They experimented on children for ideological and propaganda reasons. It’s hardly surprising they’d lie to test subjects, when the programme was clandestine. The stasi files, and related court cases/verdicts, indicate as much. Those responsible invariably defended themselves, by saying it was legal and/or that they were forced to do it by the state.
Why would they tell guinea pigs the truth when they could lie? The DDR lied to its people on a daily basis. There were no consequences.
In an authoritarian state you are robbed of the freedom not to do things AND to think things. People were sentenced to years in jail for telling relatively mild political jokes or questioning the offical government line.
Hell, that’s how the DDR made money. They’d arrest people, then West Germany would pay 40,000DM and they’d be sent to West Germany. Quite profitable.
Of course, there are likely athletes who did know they were being doped. They got away with cheating, won a medal, and get to pretend it was won fairly, despite many of East Germany’s records not being broken to this day.