Drug use in East Germany `normal'

Popping pills was part of everyday life for swimmers in East Germany, according to former world record holder Karen Koenig. "They were presented to us as vitamin pills and I believed it because it sounded so normal," Koenig was quoted as saying in yesterday's Berlin daily Tageszeitung.

"It was a ritual activity like brushing your teeth," said Koenig, now 28. "Every day I took pills of some sort." She set a world record with the East German 4x100 metres freestyle relay team in 1984.

Koenig's comments were published two days after Berlin state prosecutors charged two former East German swimming coaches with having administered drugs to young swimmers under their supervision.

The German Swimming Federation (DSV) said Dieter Lindemann and Volker Frischke, who both trained top German swimmers until recently, were the first of what investigators believe could be a series of former East German trainers to face charges of doping minors.

Lindemann, who once trained Germany's world champion Franziska van Almsick, and Frischke, who trained European 800 metres freestyle champion Kerstin Kielgass, have been removed from the national team's training squad.

The charges follow investigations into 10 trainers and three doctors employed by the former SC Dynamo Berlin East German swimming club.

Former East German athletics coach Ekkart Arbeit was appointed Australia's national coach last week, causing an uproar.

Presidents of both the German Sports Federation and German Swimming Federation told Australian reporters yesterday that they would not employ Arbeit because of the widespread doping of East German athletes in the 1980s.

Arbeit was head coach for throwing events for the East German team between 1982 and 1988 and overall team coach for the former communist state in 1989-90. He has consistently denied being involved in doping.

But in an interview yesterday, Arbeit admitted he knew about the doping programmes: "At that time, it was part of the preparation all over the world," Arbeit said on Australian television. "It was part of the training system. It was a fact of life."

Leading members of the former East German sports establishment are currently under investigation for doping programmes, judicial sources said. Among them are Rudi Hellmann, former head of sport in East Germany.