A report by an independent committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency has accused Russia of effectively having a state-sponsored doping programme for its athletes. The 323-page report contends that high-ranking state sports officials have been engaged in a pervasive culture of doping. Everyone from coaches and track-and-field athletes to state-laboratory personnel have been involved. Medals won at the 2012 Olympics have been tainted by the accusations. But state-sponsored doping is an issue that goes back a long, long way.
The lives of many athletes were irrevocably changed by the East German drive for success on the world sporting stage during the 1970s and 1980s. Heidi Krieger, who at the age of 21 won a gold medal in the shot put event at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart, had been systematically and unwittingly pumped full of anabolic steroids throughout her teenage years. She weighed 15 stone, had a deep voice, sprouted facial hair and was by then already confused about her true sexual identity. Eleven years later, she opted to undergo gender reassignment surgery and became Andreas…
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