MORE than a hundred leading athletes who ran, swam and lifted weights for the greater glory of communism are girding themselves for the toughest contest of their lives, a courtroom battle against the eastern German company that made the performance-enhancing drugs that they allege broke their health.

The class action against Jenapharm, the drugs company, will expose how talented teenagers were systematically given steroids to build muscle and transform them into world-class competitors. East Germany became one of the top five sporting nations, but hundreds of athletes are paying the price. The athletes were angered this week by the company’s decision to hire a historian to investigate the case at a cost of €250,000 (£167,000). German companies have hired historians to research their role in the Nazi era but never before their connection with the East German Communist regime or its secret police, the Stasi.

The athletes see it as a delaying tactic. Andreas Krieger, perhaps the most dramatic victim of the drugs, said: “Why can’t the company put this kind of money into a fund to help the victims?” Out of thousands of athletes who were given Oral- Turinabol, an anabolic steroid that was nicknamed the “blue bean”, an estimated 800 developed serious ailments. The case against Jenapharm is scheduled to begin next month and has been sponsored by 160 of the athletes who are claiming damages of €17,000 each.

Krieger is a gruff-voiced 40-year-old man who is married to another sporting victim, the athlete Ute Krause. In 1986, however, he was a she, Heidi Kreiger, the shotputter who won the European Championships with an astonishing put of 21.10m. The championships were held in Stuttgart, West Germany, and the East Berlin regime was determined to beat the Western capitalists in all disciplines.

For years before the championships, athletes were put on a crash steroids programme. From the age of 15 Heidi was given the blue pill: 885mg of male hormones in 1982, rising to 2,590mg in 1984. Heidi’s training book shows how her performance benefited. “It didn’t bother me that my hair was growing up to my belly button or that my voice was becoming deeper,” she said. “I just wanted to do well.”

But after the championships, her hormones were in disarray. The West Germans dubbed her Hormone Heidi because she was so obviously bulked up with medication. Her body screamed with pain and she became suicidal. Eight years ago, she had a sex change.

“The doping probably didn’t directly cause my transsexuality but it certainly intensified it,” Krieger said. He runs a clothing shop in Magdeburg and needs an injection of male hormones every three weeks — “otherwise I become tearful and depressed”.

Roland Schmidt, once a leading weightlifter who is a lifeguard in a Saxon town, was also given Oral-Turinabol. He developed huge breasts that had to be amputated. “I was completely stunned because I was in a more or less pre- cancerous condition,” he said.

The swimmer Petra Schneider, a gold medal-winner in the 400m medley in the 1980 Olympics, has serious heart and back problems. Rica Reinisch, who broke numerous world records in the backstroke, has recurrent ovarian cysts and has had several miscarriages.

Jenapharm argues that it was merely a cog in the communist machine. “Oral-Turinabol was legally approved by the East German Government and available on the market,” Isabelle Roth, the chief executive of the company, said. “The drug was misused by the sports physicians and trainers. Jenapharm cannot be held responsible.”

The former East German sporting community is unsure how far it wants to pursue legal action against the pharmaceuticals company. Previous attempts to gain compensation from convicted sports trainers and communist sports administrators have failed and it seems that this case could continue for years.

Herr Krieger is not sure whether he can withstand the stress of a public trial. “It’s a bit like being a rape victim,” he said. “You have to stand up in the dock and defend yourself, be treated as if you were a willing conspirator rather than a victim. I don’t want to be defined by my illnesses the whole time. I just want to live my life.”

WORLD BEATERS

The Stasi listed GDR doping under the code name “Komplex 08”

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