Doping & Drugs ·
Ilona Slupianek’s Positive Test and Return to Gold
A nandrolone finding in Helsinki brought a one-year suspension in 1977. European and Olympic titles followed, but the positive test alone does not explain those later victories.
At the 1977 European Cup in Helsinki, East German shot-putter Ilona Slupianek tested positive for nandrolone during an in-competition drug check, according to a later account published by the German newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. She was suspended for one year. In 1978, she won the European title in Prague; in 1980, she won Olympic gold in Moscow.
The Helsinki result brought a sanction against an athlete who had finished fifth at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Olympedia records her disqualification from the 1977 European Cup and the year-long suspension. The positive test was a finding at one competition, not proof of how she achieved her subsequent victories.
In Prague, Slupianek’s winning throw measured 21.41 metres. Helena Fibingerová finished second with 20.86 metres, a margin of 55 centimetres. World Athletics’ results for the championships, held from August 29 to September 3, 1978, list Slupianek in first place for East Germany. Her suspension had not ended her international career.
The status of that European result has been described differently. The newspaper’s 2021 account said Slupianek’s name was later removed from official results. World Athletics’ published table, however, lists her as the winner. The two accounts leave the formal status of the result unclear.
The Helsinki test also prompted a change beyond Slupianek’s own competition schedule, according to the newspaper. East Germany introduced checks before athletes travelled abroad; the account described the measure as a response to her case within the country’s state-directed doping system. The checks were not another sanction against Slupianek but were intended to ensure that East German athletes did not travel abroad without first being tested.
Slupianek went on to take the Moscow Olympic shot-put title, a result recorded by Olympedia. After German reunification, she resisted discussing the East German doping system. In remarks to the newspaper taz, later quoted by Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, she said the subject had nothing to do with her, that others had made the decisions and should explain them.