Czechs investigate secret Cold War-era doping program run by communist state, By: Karel Janicek

December 13, 2006 

HORNI SUCHA, Czech Republic (AP) - Ota Zaremba won a gold medal in weightlifting at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and set several world records during his career. These days, he can barely lift his body out of bed.

The 49-year-old Zaremba says his health was "ruined" by steroids, which he and hundreds of other athletes in this former Communist country were routinely given during the 1970s and 1980s. Worried that the masterminds of the doping program remain in top sports positions, authorities here have begun investigating the vast system run by the totalitarian regime in the former Czechoslovakia.

Zaremba, unable to work and surviving on a disability pension of 6,000 koruna (C$328) a month, sold his gold medal and has decided to speak out.

"I really was not able to work for eight hours, only two to three hours at the best and just couldn't do more," he said. "My entire body was in pain."

Jaroslav Nekola, chairman of the Czech Anti-Doping Committee, estimated about 400 top athletes in a dozen selected sports - including track and field, skiing, swimming, canoeing, cycling, wrestling and weightlifting - participated in the doping program.

Nekola said they signed an agreement to join a program of "specialized care" modelled after the doping regimens in the former East Germany and Soviet Union and given the green light by top Communist authorities.

Launched in the late 1970s, the program was directly controlled by the government through a sports institute created for the purpose at the Health Ministry, Nekola said.

Athletes were given "anabolic steroids of all kinds," he said. Those who refused faced the risk of being dropped from national teams.

"In our sport, coach (Emil) Brzoska told us we would have to take performance enhancing drugs ... otherwise we wouldn't be allowed to prepare for the Olympics," Zaremba said in an interview in this eastern town where he lives with his parents. He said he used the steroids administered to him by the coach from 1979 to 1984.

Brzoska, currently chairman of the country's weightlifting federation, said he was just following orders.

"I didn't mastermind it, I just had to obey," Brzoska said in a telephone interview. "We just had to do what (the politicians) wanted to. We had to win medals."

Unlike in Germany, which launched its own investigation into East German doping after the 1989 Soviet collapse, no criminal charges are expected to be filed here. But Nekola said the probe will expose the administrators of the program, including coaches and doctors.

In the wake of the doping revelations, Brzoska has said he has no plans to seek re-election as federation chairman next year.

Formerly classified documents seen by The Associated Press show athletes who participated in the program underwent preventative doping tests at a Prague laboratory before major international events, including the Olympics and world championships, to make sure their systems were clean of the banned substances. Those who failed were recalled from the competitions.

Investigation chief Ilja Pravda, part of a government-sponsored body probing Communist-era crimes, said he plans to release his findings next year in a publication that "will attempt to directly point to those responsible for doping, including state and (communist) party officials and doctors ... and the athletes."

Lubomir Soucek, a spokesman for the Slovak Olympic Committee, said there was no similar investigation in Slovakia because the doping system was set up in communist times under a central authority in Prague.

Nekola said the national Olympic committee decided in the early 1990s to pardon those involved in doping. That prevented a thorough examination of the program - until now.

Several factors hinder the probe.

The word "doping" never appeared in available documents, Nekola said. He said some names in the secret files "are coded and the codes still are not known."

Also, those who were involved in the program remain tightlipped.

"There's no direct evidence ... until somebody confesses, saying, 'Yes, I took it,"' Nekola said. He said athletes are reluctant to speak out because they are "ashamed to acknowledge publicly that they were cheating."

"The biggest obstacle for the investigation is that athletes don't want to talk about it," Pravda said. "It's too sensitive for them."

Zaremba, meanwhile, is still paying the price of taking part in the program.

He needs strong painkillers to combat severe aches in his knees, spine and other parts of his body. "In the morning, it takes me much longer to get out of bed than my 81-year-old mother who is recovering from a stroke," Zaremba said, smiling bitterly.

Struggling financially, Zaremba sold his gold medal for 50,000 koruna (C$2,700). He receives an annual contribution of several hundred euros from the Czech National Olympic Committee.

He blames doping for making him sterile - and breaking up his marriage. "If we had been able to have a child, I wouldn't have been divorced," he said.

The national Olympic committee offered athletes in the 1990s to undergo a thorough medical check. About one-third of them took up the opportunity, Nekola said, adding nobody has sought compensation for the health damage.

On Wednesday, German authorities announced victims of East Germany's doping system will get a one-time payment of 9,250 euros (C$14,000) as compensation for health problems and will give up any other legal action.

Looking back, Zaremba said he believes doping helped him "have a chance" to win against other athletes from other countries who were also using drugs

"I took the anabolic steroids as well as the others did and I beat them all," he said. "That means I was the best."