Manfred Hoeppner

Dr. Manfred Hoeppner served as the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) top sports doctor. He and Manfred Ewald, who served as German Democratic Republic's (GDR) minister of sport ('61 to '88) and president of his country's Olympic committee[1] ('73-'90), are regarded as the architects of their country's state-sponsored system of using illicit performance-enhancing drugs, which is believed to explain GDR's Olympic success between 1972 through 1988. Hoeppner allegedly had ties to the East German secret police, the Stasi.[2]

Doping Scandal

On July 18, 2000, in Berlin, both Manfred Ewald and Dr. Hoeppner were convicted as accessories to intentional bodily harm of athletes, including minors. Both received probation. During the trial Dr. Hoeppner testified that they had approval from the highest level of the government of the GDR. However, unlike his colleague, Dr. Hoeppner expressed remorse in his role and was quoted as saying to the court "I beg those athletes who suffered ill-health to accept my apologies."[3]

References

  1. http://www.olympic.org
  2. "Doping scandal reaches court". BBC. 2000-05-02. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  3. "Apology over East German doping". BBC. 2000-05-05. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.