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First Posted: 8/5/2013 (AP) West Germany's government encouraged and covered up a culture of doping among its athletes for decades, according to a comprehensive study released Monday.
The report, titled "Doping in Germany from 1950 to today," accuses the Federal Institute of Sport Science of having held the central role in a government-backed attempt to dope athletes for international success.
The report states that the institute (BISp), which was formed under jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry in 1970, attempted to establish "systemic doping under the guise of basic research."
The 501-page report was published by BISp after some details were disclosed in a newspaper article last weekend.
While West German government control over sport was not comparable to that in East Germany, the authors of the report state: "The participation of many national coaches, sports doctors and officials was in a manner conspicuously similar to the systematic doping system of the GDR."
The study was conducted by researchers under the leadership of Giselher Spitzer at Berlin's Humboldt University with another team based in the University of Muenster. It was completed in April but publication had been postponed indefinitely because of issues over publishing names. Pressure to publish the full document grew after the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper released details of the report Saturday.
The names of athletes, however, appear to have been withheld from the final report.
The report says there was no systematic, state-led doping system before the BISp was established, but that its formation led to a "gradual adaptation to the GDR sports system."
It states that while some athletes and coaches were opposed to doping, they rarely came forward "as they thought they wouldn't be listened to due to the popularity of doping coaches, athletes and doctors in the media."
The investigation was initiated by the German Olympic Sports Confederation in 2008 and commissioned by the BISp, which provided about $700,000 toward the study.
The researchers divided the study into three periods: 1950-1972, 1972-1989 and 1989-2007. They found that the methamphetamine Pervitin, which had been used by German soldiers during World War II, was tested extensively in the 1950s despite being banned.
"Amphetamines, including Pervitin, came into use in German sport, not only in cycling or athletics, until 1960," the report says.
The historians uncovered a letter from FIFA medical committee chairman Mihailo Andrejevic regarding "very fine traces" of the banned stimulant ephedrine that had been found in three unnamed German players at the 1966 World Cup.
The German soccer federation refused access to its archives, the report says.
The researchers also struggled to access official documents covered by a 30-year secrecy rule, and Spitzer told broadcaster RBB Inforadio that all the important files related to doping were destroyed before the project could begin.
Files did reveal that anabolic steroids were being used by West German athletes, including runners, rowers, soccer players and cyclists, as early as 1960. Sports organizations played down studies showing the serious side effects of steroids.
The BISp financed experiments to "improve" anabolic steroids, the report says.
The researchers concluded that effective doping controls were introduced only in late 1980s and that doping was prevalent even after 1991.
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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.
<a title="Associated Press" href="http://www.ap.org" class="url org fn">Associated Press</a>

Study: West Germany cultivated culture of doping