PRAGUE, Aug 16 - Secret documents show Communist Czechoslovakia
systematically and officially administered steroids and other illegal substances
to athletes, including former world champion discus thrower Imrich Bugar.
The documents, copies of which were obtained by Reuters from the daily Mlada
Fronta Dnes, which first uncovered them, show doctors supplied banned substances
to athletes through the 1980s, when Czechoslovakia had some of its greatest
sporting successes.
Coaches and high-ranking sports and government officials also had knowledge
of the programme, part of a Cold War campaign to show supremacy over the West,
the documents showed.
Drug names such as the steroid nandrolone, norandrosterone and stanozolol
appear, along with dosages and dates to be administered. Athletes in
weightlifting, athletics, hockey and skiing, among others, were included, as
were juniors.
Only a few doctors were informed of the programme. "The rational application
of anabolic steroids will help contribute to the political promotion of sports
in the communist state, and help strengthen the country's prestige," one of the
documents addressed to the Czechoslovak Sports Association said.
"The top sports for us today need new access, the same that are available to
the rest of the world, mainly in the areas of endocrinology, dosages of anabolic
steroids, biochemistry, and dosages of other supportive means," another document
added.
East Bloc states were often suspected of running official doping programmes.
After Germany reunited in 1990, the government there set up a commission to
look into the work of East German scientists and found that most top East German
athletes had been forced to participate in doping programmes.
Hundreds of German athletes suffered health problems as a result of their
often unwitting use of drugs.
SECRET TESTS
The Czechoslovak documents show sports such as weightlifting and athletics
were targeted for doping as early as prior to the 1976 Olympic Games in
Montreal.
Under the system doctors and officials carried out secret urine tests of
athletes ahead of major events overseas to see if they would test positive.
Experts were charged with keeping doping under control to make sure no
embarrassing incidents arose.
"It was an era where a lot was kept secret," Milan Jiranek, current head of
the Czech Olympic Committee, told Reuters.
