PBS series Secrets of the Dead will have an epsiode about female German athletes who are now 'paying the price'. The little blurb I just saw showed swimmer. Thought some of you might be interested. It will air on Wednesday evening, in my area.
Lainey
Parents
Former Member
I think this is the whole program, isn't it? I watched it yesterday. Hard to believe the women didn't know they were taking something controversial at the time. I was on deck with GDR women at a meet at USC in 1983 and they sure did look beefed up on something.
www.pbs.org/.../
Right, it's only one episode. I just haven't finished watching it yet.
I'm not that surprised that a lot of the girls didn't know what they were taking. Remember, some of them were only 12 or 13 years old.
One of the more ironic things was the part about the swimmer who ended up having to drop out of the sport. She couldn't understand why she was gaining so much weight (yet swimming faster). She ended up developing an eating disorder (trying to counteract the weight gain, I assume) and they dropped her from the team.
It was also interesting that the scientists and doctors knew that these drugs could be very bad for a developing fetus, so they automatically put all of the female athletes on birth control pills starting at about age 12.
I think this is the whole program, isn't it? I watched it yesterday. Hard to believe the women didn't know they were taking something controversial at the time. I was on deck with GDR women at a meet at USC in 1983 and they sure did look beefed up on something.
www.pbs.org/.../
Right, it's only one episode. I just haven't finished watching it yet.
I'm not that surprised that a lot of the girls didn't know what they were taking. Remember, some of them were only 12 or 13 years old.
One of the more ironic things was the part about the swimmer who ended up having to drop out of the sport. She couldn't understand why she was gaining so much weight (yet swimming faster). She ended up developing an eating disorder (trying to counteract the weight gain, I assume) and they dropped her from the team.
It was also interesting that the scientists and doctors knew that these drugs could be very bad for a developing fetus, so they automatically put all of the female athletes on birth control pills starting at about age 12.
