"We came here to swim, not sing."

[NNN0LHI]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1DA1731F930A35751C1A967958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=all

OLYMPICS; Coaches Concede That Steroids Fueled East Germany's Success in Swimming

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: December 3, 1991

The stunning domination of international swimming by East German women for nearly two decades was built upon an organized system of anabolic-steroid use, a group of 20 former East German coaches confirmed yesterday.

Their admission, provided to reporters in Bonn, is the latest evidence -- and some of the most convincing -- that senior sports administrators of the now-dissolved Communist state made performance-enhancing drugs a critical part of the training programs for the country's elite athletes.

"We confirm that anabolic steroids were used in former East German swimming," the coaches said in a signed statement. "Not all of us were involved in doping. The extent varied." A Golden Period

Whatever degree to which the drugs were used, the admission of the coaches covers a golden period -- from the late 1960's to the late 1980's -- in which East German Olympic champions and world-record holders like Kornelia Ender, Petra Schneider, Ute Geweniger, Barbara Krause and Ulrike Richter won nearly every time they competed.

The coaches' statement did not identify any of the swimmers who used steroids.

At the first world swimming championships, in 1973, East German women won 10 of the 14 gold medals available, setting eight world records. Three years later at the Summer Games in Montreal, the East Germans won 10 of the 12 gold medals for individual events. When a rival coach noted with some sarcasm that the voices of many of the East German women were unusually deep -- a telltale sign of the effects of steroid use in females -- an East German coach replied, "We came here to swim, not sing."

[tigereye]

1. there's a surprise....

I remember that from games past.

[MrScorpio]

2. Ok, we got the voices... But tell me this:

How do you explain the five 'o clock shadows?