Page 141 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Spring 2016

Faust’s Gold

Inside the East German Doping Machine

Ungerleider, Steven. Faust’s Gold. Inside the East German Doping Machine.
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. 249 pages. ISBN 0-312-26977-3.

Review by COL (Ret) Warner “Rocky” D. Farr, MD, MPH

ee, the more things change, the more they remain the After the German reunification, the story started to
Gsame! The network news recently was announcing a emerge. Much was in the then-declassified East Ger-
suspension of Russian athletes because of doping allega- man secret police (the “Stasi”) files, and more came out
tions. I wonder where they learned how to do that!? Easy, when former GDR coaches and team physicians either
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just review what the East Germans, confessed or went to very public trial in Germany for
officially the German Democratic their actions as participators in the GDR’s secret “State
Republic (GDR), did to their athletes Planning Theme 14.25.” Their drug of choice, devel-
in the 1970s and 1980s. More than oped in 1965, was Oral Turinabol, a testosterone de-
10,000 unsuspecting young athletes rivative made in East Germany. They then used “bridge
were given huge doses of perfor- therapy” to get the competitors through the event dope-
mance-enhancing anabolic steroids testing period. That consisted of testosterone esters un-
and went on to previously unheard detectable by the standard testing protocols.
heights of award-winning success in
international competitions, includ- This new revised edition of Faust’s Gold (2013) draws
ing multiple Summer and Winter Olympic Games. on the revelations of the criminal trials of East German
coaches, doctors, and officials who have now confessed
Since I spent much of the Cold War in West Berlin in our to these ruthless medical experiments. This new edition
Special Forces unit and could travel to East Germany, I highlights recent cases of performance-enhancing drugs
saw the East German sports machine up close and per- used in baseball, the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative
sonal. Shortages might exist in most categories of items scandal, and the troubles in international cycling.
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in East Berlin retail shops, but there was always sports
equipment and superb training facilities. There was also So what is to be learned from all this? Well, what comes
tremendous Olympic success. In the 1956, 1960, 1964, around goes around and it’s here again. Just ask the Ger-
and 1968 Winter Olympic Games, the East Germany mans and the Russians. Much interest continues. I am
versus West Germany medal count was consistently 1:1. not making any finger-pointing associations, but even
But by the 1984 Winter Olympics, it was 24:4 in East articles have the use of testosterone has appeared in the
Germany’s favor. The summer games were similar, with Journal of Special Operations Medicine. It discussed tes-
the medal count going from 7 (East) to 20 (West) in tosterone in its proper therapeutic doses, however. 3
1956 to 102 (East) to 40 (West) in Seoul, South Korea,
in 1988. All totaled, between 1956 and 1988, East Ger- One could view this book as a precautionary tale to
many, with a population much smaller than that of West learn from.
Germany, achieved 572 Summer and Winter Olympic
Games medals while West Germany gained 334 medals. References
Clearly, East Germany had “help.”
1. BBC. Athletics doping scandal: Russia ruled in breach of Wada
Basing his reports on interviews with former athletes and code. http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/34860136. Accessed
20 November 2015.
officials, author Steven Ungerleider details the extensive 2. Wikipedia. BALCO scandal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
health problems that the female athletes suffered as a re- BALCO_scandal. Accessed 20 November 2015.
sult of the “vitamins” they took. These ranged from short- 3. Grumbo R, Haight D. Evaluation for testosterone deficiency. J
term concerns, including raging libidos and unnatural hair Spec Oper Med. 2015;15:4–9.
growth, to serious, long-term problems, including depres-
sion, subsequent birth defects, heart failure, and tumors.

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