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East v West Germany: The drug-fuelled Cold War for medals

BBC
Summary
Nutrition label

69% Informative

Birgit Dressel , a German heptathlete, died at the age of 26 in 1987 .

She was heavily reliant on prescription drugs to compete and live pain-free.

Autopsy revealed traces of more than 100 drugs in her system, including steroids.

Dressel 's demise was a harrowing example of how far humans will go to keep up.

Dr Armin Klumper was head of sports traumatology at University Medical Center Freiberg .

Joseph Keul was head physician of the German Olympic team from the 1960s onwards.

Joseph Paoli says 90% of West German track and field athletes passed through Freiburg in the 1970s and 1980s .

Paoli: "Unlike in East Germany , much of it was a top-down doping system in the West".

German report claims doping was widespread on both sides of the Cold War divide.

Leaks from Doping in Germany from 1950 to today emerged in August 2013 .

VR Score

78

Informative language

81

Neutral language

48

Article tone

semi-formal

Language

English

Language complexity

52

Offensive language

likely offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

External references

no external sources

Source diversity

no sources

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