Background/Purpose Most researchers believe that doping helped communist East Germany (GDR) to win a large number of Olympic and world gold medals and records from late 1960's to 1989. The aim of this research was to examine the influences and consequences of organized system of doping use on domination of international swimming by GDR women.
Method A literature review included journal papers, ISHOF publications, newspapers and websites. The data were analyzed thematically and contextualized within the historiographical framework.
Analysis/Results State Plan 14:25 was a state doctrine controlled by the Stasi (the GDR's secret police), to use steroids to ensure sporting success on an international stage as a way of showing the superiority of communist regime. Using doping, GDR women shattered 130 world records (79 of them from 1973 to 1976) and won more than half of all Olympic medals available to them from 1976 to 1988; almost two thirds of all world titles and a staggering 97 out of 104 European crowns in seven championships.
Conclusions The fall of the GDR and German unification made possible to discover the truth. In 1991, a group of 20 ex-GDR coaches confirmed that anabolic steroids were used in the GDR swimming. No GDR swimmer was ever caught or penalized for doping use. The IOC and FINA do not punish athletes retroactively without an admission by the athlete. In 2007 Germany finished paying out $4.1 million in compensation to 157 former athletes who were the victims of the systematic doping conducted in former GDR.
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