Manfred Ewald

Manfred Ewald
Manfred Ewald (right) and Waldemar Cierpinski, 1980
Born	(1926-05-17)May 17, 1926 Podejuch, Germany (now part of Szczecin, Poland)
Died	October 21, 2002(2002-10-21) (aged 76) Damsdorf

Manfred Ewald (May 17, 1926 – October 21, 2002) served as German Democratic Republic's (GDR) minister of sport (1961–1988) and president of his country's Olympic committee (1973–1990). However, he is best known for his role as the architect of his East Germany's state-sponsored system of using illicit performance-enhancing drugs to turn his country into an Olympic powerhouse between 1972 and 1988.

History

He was a member of the Hitler Youth, the Nazi party and of the Socialist Unity Party (also known as the Communist Party).

He was captured by the Red army in 1944.

He was awarded the Olympic Order by the IOC in 1983.

Doping scandal

On July 18, 2000, in Berlin, both Ewald and Dr. Manfred Hoeppner, who served as East Germany's top sports doctor, were convicted of being 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. Ewald had earlier defended his role in sports doping in his 1994 book Ich war der Sport.

Publications

As President of the National Olympic Committee of the GDR, in 1985 he authored a letter to the IOC for the 90th IOC session being held in East Berlin that year. He is also the author of Ich war der Sport (1994), wherein he defended his role in sports doping.

External links

• The (London) Independent
• Britannica Online Encyclopedia
• The Guardian UK
• The LA Times
• "Fistic Medicine: The Benefit & Cost of Steroids" by Matt Pitt