The "Wonder Girls"

"The worst thing is they took away from me the opportunity to ever know if I could have won the gold medals without the steroids. That's the greatest betrayal of all." ~Rica Reinisch; retired East German Olympic swimmer


All Humans were born with a competitive drive to be the best for as long as our existence. The thought of a product that had the ability to make oneself the best, would naturally create an eruption; and this is what happened exactly. Anabolic steroids, first introduced in the 1930’s, were designed to mentally and physically develop that athlete’s fantasy. Anabolic steroids first began in weight lifting in the 1950’s, but throughout just a couple decades, the use of them increased between other sports as well. And later were anabolic steroids not just used for men, but were eventually taken by women too.

In 1976, the Summer Olympics were taken place in Montreal, Canada. Private labs in East Germany have been producing steroids along with other muscle-strengthening pills. The Germans, being a strong and successful country, were determined to beat the United States, let alone the world, in the Olympics that year. In order to accomplish this goal, the East Germans had to do something different from anyone else that would allow the athletes to push and strengthen their bodies more than what was known to man at that time. The answer was steroids. Without permission by the adolescents’ parents and the adolescents themselves, the intense East German coaches fed the women swimmers up to 30 pills of steroids every day during their multiple daily practices. Their goal was to end up with swimmers who were better and stronger than any other swimmer on the planet by the time they were fully grown, the only problem being that by the time they were fully grown they would have had several temporary, and permanent, affects from taking the steroids (deepened voice, irregular menstrual cycles, facial hair, cancer, heart disease, liver damage, and others). The coaches knew of the “benefits” of the drug, but little did they know about the incredibly negative side of taking them.

By the time the 1976 Summer Olympics came, the German coaches already planned to stop taking the anabolic steroids two weeks prior to the drug testing required for entering the competition. Fortunately to the Germans, none of the women swimmers were tested positive for the drug testing because of their extreme precautions. It was clear to all the athletes across the world that something was being done to the German swimmers because of the massive size of their muscles and deepened voice making the swimmers seem like men.The East German women swimmers won eleven out of the thirteen medals, while altogether taking home forty-six medals; six more than the United States.

At the time, anabolic steroids may have seemed like the ultimate answer, but years later most of the East German women swimmers have either died from multiple cancers and liver problems, or still live today with wretched side effects. During an interview with former U.S. Olympic swimmer Wendy Boglioli, she was encountered with Heidi Krieger, now Andreas Krieger, who had a complete sex change because of how much she was mistaken as a man and even felt more comfortable as a man as a result from the damage of the steroids. But what’s most shocking is even though most of the swimmers suffered the side effects, one woman stated that she was tempted to take the drugs at the time if it made her faster. This explains exactly why the statistics of teenagers alone using anabolic steroids has increased drastically since the introduction of the drug. Although anabolic steroids are far more negative than positive from an average person, to desperate athletes willing to do anything for success in their sport it seems like “the final solution.” Since steroids have been introduced to the world of athletics, the bar of expectation has been raised even further putting a greater amount of pressure on the athletes. Competition may have a strong contribution to human society, but is it worth risking your life?