Christian Schenk, who won a decathlon gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, has admitted doping in his autobiography, ‘Riss – Mein Leben zwischen Hymne und Hölle’. ‘At first, I denied ever having taken banned substances’, writes Schenk in the excerpts, published by Sport Bild Magazine. ‘Then, as a coping strategy, I used a softer response – that I would never knowingly dope. Both were lies.’ 

Schenk was an athlete for the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which systematically doped athletes through State Plan 14.25. His biography reveals that athletes were given a variety of pills at a training camp in Bulgaria, which athletes referred to as ‘smarties’. He states that one of the substances involved was oral turinabol, but admits that ‘exactly what we swallowed there, I do not know’. 

Clemens Prokop, Honorary President of the German Athletics Association (DLV), welcomed Schenk’s confession. “This deserves the highest respect”, he said in an article published on the DLV’s internet site. “Any clear account of the use of banned substances in the past is also a word of warning for young athletes”.