6 East German Olympic Champions Reportedly Used Steroids in Mid-’80s

Six former East German Olympic champions, including shotputters Udo Beyer and Ulf Timmermann and discus thrower Jurgen Schult, used anabolic steroids during the mid-1980s, according to Der Spiegel magazine.

The allegations are based on a book being published later this year by former East German discus champion Brigitte Berendonk.

Timmermann and Schult, both ’88 Olympic winners, and Beyer, the ’76 champion, took a steroid called Oral-Turinabol, Der Spiegel claims. The magazine also alleges that, during 1984, women’s javelin world record-holder Petra Felke, discus thrower Martina Hellmann and shotputter Ilona Slupianek took the performance-enhancing drug. All three women are ’88 gold medalists. The athletes could not be reached for comment.

The revelations came as the German Athletics Federation said Sunday that 17 of the 82 athletes on the national squad had yet to be given dope tests--months after they should have been tested.