BERLIN, GERMANY – Former Olympic swimmer Andrea Pollack-Pinsche testifying at the trial of former East German coaches and doctors accused of giving athletes anabolic steroids said she did not know if she received any and would undergo testing only under court order.
Prosecutors in the trial are seeking to show that the defendants gave 19 young female athletes performance-enhancing drugs that ”seriously disturbed the direction of their hormonal growth.” Other swimmers have testified that they became aware they were being given steroids, but felt they could not refuse the drugs.
Pollack-Pinsche, who won Olympic medals at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games, only acknowledged that she was given pills and sometimes injections, and said she did not know what they contained but believed they were vitamins. She was 15 at the time. ”The pills were washed down with tea and that was the end of it,” said the 37-year-old, who now works as a physiotherapist.