Two Reports Say Use of Steroids Widespread in East Germany

Two former athletes, one a world champion ski jumper, have charged that East Germany customarily gives young athletes steroids, two newspapers reported in Hamburg, West Germany.

The reports said that all top East German sports stars are required to use the drugs and that such successful athletes as figure skater Katerina Witt, sprinter Renate Stecher and swimmer Kristin Otto are among those who have regularly used anabolic steroids.

“Every athlete who competes internationally for East Germany is doped, every one,” said Hans-Juergen Noczenski, former head of the East German Judo Assn. Noczenski fled East Germany last February and now lives in Austria.

Hans-Georg Aschenbach, the former East German ski jumping star, was quoted as saying that he was told to take steroids during his athletic career and that it is required among all top East German athletes.

“I swallowed and injected anabolics for eight years,” Aschenbach, 38, was quoted as saying. “We had to take this medicine. We were required to. Whoever didn’t was forced out of the national squad and faced great difficulties in private life.”

Aschenbach fled East Germany last year and now works as a doctor specializing in athlete treatment in the West German city of Freiburg.

East German sports officials, Aschenbach said, give steroid pills to promising athletes as young as 13 without telling them what the pills contain.

“That’s one reason I fled,” he was quoted as saying.