East v West Germany: The drug-fuelled Cold War for medals - BBC Sport

At the end of the Cold War, East Germany's systematic doping secrets spilled out. The truth on the other side of the Berlin Wall has taken longer to emerge.

East v West - Germany's drug-fuelled Cold War for medals

Image source, Getty ImagesOlivier GuiberteauBBC Sport"These are all harmless drugs. All athletes take them. It's really nothing special."

That was what German heptathlete Birgit Dressel, who finished ninth in the 1984 Olympic Games, once told her mother.

Sadly, those words couldn't have been further from the truth. On 8 April 1987, after taking medication to help with a bad back, Dressel's body went into allergic-toxic shock, leading to rapid organ failure.

After two days of agony in Mainz hospital, she died at the age of 26.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/articles/crlrn9re3z5o

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