Birgit Meineke (later Heukrodt, born 4 July 1964) is a retired East German swimmer. She was the fastest female swimmer in the 100 m freestyle between 1980 and 1984.

Career

Meineke was strongest in the early 1980s, winning a gold medal as part of the East German team for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay in the

1981 European Aquatics Championships The 1981 European Aquatics Championships were held in an indoor pool (50 m) in Split, Yugoslavia from 5 September to 12 September 1981. Besides swimming there were titles contested in diving, synchronized swimming (women) and water polo ...

, as well as two silver medals in the same year for the 200 meter and 100 meter freestyle. In the same year, she also established a world record in the short course 100 m freestyle, with a time of 54.04 seconds. While her performance at the

1982 World Aquatics Championships The 4th FINA World Aquatics Championships took place from July 29-August 8, 1982, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. They featured 848 athletes, competing in four Aquatics disciplines: *Diving - 4 events (2 male, 2 female); *Swimming - 29 events (15 male, 1 ...

was similarly strong, the pinnacle of her career was a sweep of five golds at the

1983 European Aquatics Championships The 1983 LEN European Aquatics Championships took place at the Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto in Rome, Italy, between 22 August and 27 August 1983. East Germany won all women's events in the swimming competition, and also every silver medal available t ...

in Rome. Meineke was unable to compete in the Olympics due to the

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by 14 Eastern Bloc countries, including East Germany. However, she won several medals at the

Friendship Games The 1984 Friendship Games, or Friendship-84 (, ''Druzhba-84''), was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other Eastern Bloc states which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in ...

, including two gold medals as part of the teams for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and the 4 × 100 m medley relay, the latter of which broke a world record. She ended her swimming career in that year, later becoming a general surgeon. Meineke was married to canoer Olaf Heukrodt.

East German doping

Like many other East German female athletes, Meineke was subject to systematic administration of

performance-enhancing drugs Performance-enhancing substances (PESs), also known as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. Many substances, such as anabolic steroids, can be used to improve at ...

. These caused health problems for her in later life, including a liver tumor she attributed to the use of

anabolic steroids Anabolic steroids, also known as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), are a class of drugs that are structurally related to testosterone, the main male sex hormone, and produce effects by binding to the androgen receptor (AR). Anabolic steroids ...

and

birth control pills Oral contraceptives, abbreviated OCPs, also known as birth control pills, are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control. The introduction of the birth control pill ("the Pill") in 1960 revolutionized the options for contraception, ...

. In 1998, former coach Rolf Gläser admitted to administering steroids to Meineke and her teammates and was fined $4000 for causing bodily harm.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meineke, Birgit 1964 births Living people Swimmers from East Berlin East German female freestyle swimmers East German physicians SC Dynamo Berlin sportspeople 20th-century German physicians 20th-century German women physicians World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming German sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in swimming German women surgeons 20th-century German surgeons