Brigitte Berendonk

Brigitte Berendonk grew up in the former GDR and in 1958 defected with her family to the West. She was 1971 German champion in the discus throw and runner-up in 1967-70, and 1972-73. In the shot put she was 1973 German champion. In 1969 she was nominated for the European Championships, but could not start due to the West German boycott. At the Mexico Olymic Games she placed eighth and four years later at Munich eleventh. Berendonk studied English and sports at Freiburg.

Beside her sports career she was known primarily for her 1991 book Doping. Von der Forschung zum Betrug (Doping: From Research to Fraud) in which she exposed the state-prescribed doping practices in competitive sports in the GDR. The book is based on research in East German Stasi (state security) files and archives, undertaken by Berendonk and her husband, the esteemed molecular biologist, Professor Werner Franke. Due to this research German drug laws were amended in 1998 and it resulted in the trials of numerous former coaches and doctors from East Germany.

The international response was tremendous. Hundreds of newspaper articles and television broadcasts world-wide documented the systematic fraud, exposing the health damage inflicted on many of the victims. For her work, Berendonk was awarded the Heidi Krieger Medal, an award from the doping-victim aid. In 2004, together with her husband, she was presented with the Distinguished Service Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Personal Best: DT – 59.90 (1971).