patlamb
16-02-2005, 10:37 PM
As if Chinese sport was not reviled enough:-
A FORMER East German doping expert who has surfaced in China should be banished from sport in all countries, says Australian Olympic medallist Nicole Livingstone.
The former international swimmer, who was one of those denied medals by doped East German swimmers at the 1988 Olympics, said she was dismayed to hear that a notorious coach had appeared in China to set up new training facilities for their elite swimmers.
Helga Pfeifer, a professor, was described in Chinese press reports as an expert in 'flume technology (an artificial water channel where athletes swim against a current)', however, she also served as head swimming coach for the disgraced East German regime.
"Anyone who was in the former East German drug-taking regime shouldn't be working in our sport," Livingstone said.
"What they did amounts to child abuse. They gave drugs to young swimmers who had no choice, no say. And those swimmers are suffering horrendous health problems now. I am sure she has a case to answer in Germany.
"We don't let child abusers back in to work with children, so why should we let people like this back into sport?
"Her methods of the past could be influencing her methods of the future. It's a great concern that she's back in the sporting industry."
The German molecular biologist and professor Werner Franke, an expert on East Germany's sports system, confirmed Pfeifer was the "highest ranking" training scientist in the GDR swimming structure, but she went underground some 13 years ago.
Stasi secret police files listed Pfeifer as one of those responsible for "research team 14.25" which was the government's central doping project.
Two of the doctors that worked with Pfeifer in the 'research group', Lothar Kipke and Horst Tausch, were both convicted by German courts in the late 1990s of harming under-aged swimmers by giving them steroids.
The swimmers who testified against them, and high-ranking coaches and officials, reported substantial fertility problems as well as birth defects in many of their children.
The statute of limitations on criminal charges has expired in Germany, however, the leaders of the regime are still open to civil prosecution.
John Leonard, the executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association, said it was "disappointing to discover that a key figure in the former East German swimming regime that has been totally discredited due to systematic doping of athletes, has resurfaced in China, a nation that has worked hard in recent years to clean up its doping problems in the sport of swimming".
"It is impossible to believe that they are not aware of Helga Pfeifer's connection to the doping issue," Leonard told website swiminfo.com.
"Whatever her current role is in China, the perception is that she is doping-knowledgeable and doping-complicit and that is the wrong image for a nation trying to publicly clean up its doping act. It would be like USA Swimming hiring Balco kingpin Victor Conte."
Leonard, who is a well-known anti-doping campaigner, also said he was "appalled" by the reaction of Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates to Pfeifer's work with the Chinese swimming authorities.
The AOC and its Chinese counterpart have signed a cooperative agreement to share sporting knowledge and conduct competition and training exchanges in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Coates said he found nothing wrong with the Chinese association with Pfeifer.
"This woman's involvement in flume technology, which is perfectly legal, doesn't alter their stance (against drugs)," Coates said.
A FORMER East German doping expert who has surfaced in China should be banished from sport in all countries, says Australian Olympic medallist Nicole Livingstone.
The former international swimmer, who was one of those denied medals by doped East German swimmers at the 1988 Olympics, said she was dismayed to hear that a notorious coach had appeared in China to set up new training facilities for their elite swimmers.
Helga Pfeifer, a professor, was described in Chinese press reports as an expert in 'flume technology (an artificial water channel where athletes swim against a current)', however, she also served as head swimming coach for the disgraced East German regime.
"Anyone who was in the former East German drug-taking regime shouldn't be working in our sport," Livingstone said.
"What they did amounts to child abuse. They gave drugs to young swimmers who had no choice, no say. And those swimmers are suffering horrendous health problems now. I am sure she has a case to answer in Germany.
"We don't let child abusers back in to work with children, so why should we let people like this back into sport?
"Her methods of the past could be influencing her methods of the future. It's a great concern that she's back in the sporting industry."
The German molecular biologist and professor Werner Franke, an expert on East Germany's sports system, confirmed Pfeifer was the "highest ranking" training scientist in the GDR swimming structure, but she went underground some 13 years ago.
Stasi secret police files listed Pfeifer as one of those responsible for "research team 14.25" which was the government's central doping project.
Two of the doctors that worked with Pfeifer in the 'research group', Lothar Kipke and Horst Tausch, were both convicted by German courts in the late 1990s of harming under-aged swimmers by giving them steroids.
The swimmers who testified against them, and high-ranking coaches and officials, reported substantial fertility problems as well as birth defects in many of their children.
The statute of limitations on criminal charges has expired in Germany, however, the leaders of the regime are still open to civil prosecution.
John Leonard, the executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association, said it was "disappointing to discover that a key figure in the former East German swimming regime that has been totally discredited due to systematic doping of athletes, has resurfaced in China, a nation that has worked hard in recent years to clean up its doping problems in the sport of swimming".
"It is impossible to believe that they are not aware of Helga Pfeifer's connection to the doping issue," Leonard told website swiminfo.com.
"Whatever her current role is in China, the perception is that she is doping-knowledgeable and doping-complicit and that is the wrong image for a nation trying to publicly clean up its doping act. It would be like USA Swimming hiring Balco kingpin Victor Conte."
Leonard, who is a well-known anti-doping campaigner, also said he was "appalled" by the reaction of Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates to Pfeifer's work with the Chinese swimming authorities.
The AOC and its Chinese counterpart have signed a cooperative agreement to share sporting knowledge and conduct competition and training exchanges in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Coates said he found nothing wrong with the Chinese association with Pfeifer.
"This woman's involvement in flume technology, which is perfectly legal, doesn't alter their stance (against drugs)," Coates said.