Hello, and welcome to Spotlight. I'm Robin Basselin.

 

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　　And I'm Steve Myersco. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

 

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　　The World Athletics Championships, Berlin. Germany's capital city held this event in September 2009. Hundreds of sportsmen and women competed. And thousands of people came from all over the world to support them. They saw some of the sports people achieve great results. And the German people did all that they could to make visitors feel welcome. People said that the whole week was a huge success. But sport in Germany has not always been in such good health.

 

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　　Between 1949 and 1990, the country of Germany was divided into two states - East Germany and West Germany. This was one of the results of the Second World War. Germany was in ruins. Each of the four allied countries took control of one part of it - France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia. They wanted to help re-build the country both economically and physically. However the allies did not all agree on the best way to do this. France, the UK and the US had similar ideas. For them, the individual person was at the heart of any social and economic progress. However, the Russian authorities followed communist beliefs. Communist ideas set the needs of the state above the needs of the individual. The two groups could not reach an agreement. And so, they decided to divide the country. In 1949, the areas controlled by France, the UK and the United States united to form West Germany. And Russia's area of control became East.

 

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　　West Germany's population was almost three and a half times bigger than East Germany's. The East German economy was too small to compete with larger European nations. And the international community often criticised the East German political system because people lacked individual freedom. East Germany was not a very popular country! This pushed the government to search for an area where East Germany could be as good, or even better, than anywhere else. And the area that they chose was sport!

 

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　　In 1974 the East German government introduced a plan. It was called State Plan 14.25. This was a project designed to produce hundreds of top East German sports men and women. Children who were good at sport attended ‘Centres of Excellence'. These centres were sports schools. Here, the children learned more about the skills involved in their chosen sport. And they trained very hard. However, State Plan 14.25 involved more than just hard work. Victory on the sports field was the goal - at any price. And the government believed it had designed a way to make this happen for sure - by using drugs!

 

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　　At the special sports schools, government officials ordered doctors to give the children drugs. However, the children did not know that they were taking drugs. Birgit Boese was one of those children. She told the BBC:

 

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　　"They told us to keep quiet about everything - the healthy food, our training programmes - everything. We could not even say anything to our families when we went home. Our trainers gave the reason that they did not want our families to envy us having healthy food...we did not think anything about it, not even when they gave us drugs. They looked like vitamins - natural substances your body needs. And they told us they were vitamins and minerals."

 

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　　But the trainers were not giving the children natural vitamins. They were giving them a drug called Oral Turinabol. East German scientists had developed this drug. It was designed to build up a person's muscles - the parts of the body responsible for movement. Birgit and the other children received large amounts of these drugs every day. They did not know then how these drugs would change and damage their bodies.

 

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　　After some time, people began to notice how well East German sports men and women were performing. And the 1976 Olympic Games showed just how great this improvement was! East Germany won the second highest number of awards. And the East German women were particularly successful.

 

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　　East German sports teams continued to be successful in competitions. But as the years passed by, people began to suspect that these victories were not the result of hard training alone. Sharon Davies is a British swimmer. She competed at the 1980 Olympic Games. She told the BBC:

 

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　　"Their women looked like men...they had huge muscles that were impossible to build unless you were taking something... At world championships, new East German competitors would come. No one had heard of them. But suddenly they were there - and they would break a world record and win three races!"

 

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　　People suspected that the East German sportsmen and women were using drugs. But nobody could prove anything. Sharon Davies continues:

 

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　　"We knew the drug testers were only testing people for particular drugs. The East Germans knew what they were testing for. Their team had doctors who were part of the testing system...They made sure that all their sports people were free from drugs before they left the country. They performed their own drug tests on them there. They did not send out any sportsman who tested positive for drugs."

 

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　　Seoul, South Korea. This city organised the Olympic Games in 1988. The East German team came second again on the winners' list. They gained an amazing 102 medals! However, this was the last year of East German sporting success. The dream of sporting excellence was about to burst. In another Spotlight programme, we will examine the events that led to the end of State Plan 14.25. And we discuss the effects that it had on the country and the sportspeople involved.

 

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　　The writer of this programme was Ruby Jones. The producer was Steve Myersco. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. You can hear this programme again on our website at http://www.radio.english.net This .programme is called "Germany's Sporting Shame - Part One."

 

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　　You can comment on this or any other Spotlight programme by emailing us at [email protected]. Or you can add your comments on our website! Just go to the script page of this programme. Thank you for listening today. Until next time, goodbye!