Kornelia Ender

Kornelia Ender

Kornelia Ender in 1973
Personal information
Nationality	East German
Born	25 October 1958 Plauen, East Germany - now Saxony, Germany
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	59 kg (130 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	SV Halle
Medal record Women’s swimming Representing  East Germany Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 4 4 0 World Championships (LC) 8 2 0 European Championships (LC) 4 0 0 Total 16 6 0 Olympic Games 1976 Montreal 100 m freestyle 1976 Montreal 200 m freestyle 1976 Montreal 100 m butterfly 1976 Montreal 4×100 m medley 1972 Munich 200 m individual medley 1972 Munich 4×100 m freestyle 1972 Munich 4×100 m medley 1976 Montreal 4×100 m freestyle World Championships (LC) 1973 Belgrade 100 m freestyle 1973 Belgrade 100 m butterfly 1973 Belgrade 4×100 m freestyle 1973 Belgrade 4×100 m medley 1975 Cali 100 m freestyle 1975 Cali 100 m butterfly 1975 Cali 4x100 m freestyle 1975 Cali 4x100 m medley 1973 Belgrade 200 m medley 1975 Cali 200 m freestyle European Championships (LC) 1974 Vienna 100 m freestyle 1974 Vienna 200 m freestyle 1974 Vienna 4×100 m freestyle 1974 Vienna 4×100 m medley

Kornelia Ender (born 25 October 1958 in Plauen, Saxony) is a former East German swimmer who at the 1976 Summer Olympics became the first woman swimmer to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games, all in world record times. It was later proven that the East German team doctors had systematically administered steroids to their athletes^[1] (albeit without the athletes' knowledge). As she had exhibited symptoms of steroid use in 1976 (deep voice, overdeveloped body), strong suspicion was cast on the validity of Ender's accomplishments.

Ender trained from a young age and won her first Olympic medals as a 13-year-old at the 1972 Olympics in Munich: three silver medals, including one in the 200 m individual medley, finishing behind Australia's Shane Gould. Over the following years she broke 32 world records in individual events, including the four at the Montreal Games. In 1991, she addressed the long-held suspicions about her physical condition at the 1976 Games, acknowledging that team doctors and coaches had given her numerous injections of drugs over the preceding months (cf. doping in East Germany). Ender said that she did not know at the time, nor had she ever subsequently found out, exactly what the drugs were. She said she was told only that the drugs would help her "regenerate and recuperate" and therefore, although she was surprised by the muscle mass she added, she nonetheless attributed it simply to her rigorous training.

When she became suspicious and refused to take Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone in 1977 she was banned from the team by the Marxist authorities.^[2]

Ender was married for four years to East German backstroke swimmer and multiple Olympic champion Roland Matthes. She is now married to former East German - German track and field athlete and bobsledder Steffen Grummt.

See also

Kornelia Ender in 1976

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists

References

• Lord, Craig (Mar 26, 2004). Olympic heroes. Times Online

1. E. German Olympic Dopers Guilty
2. Der Erinnerungsakrobat, April 22, 2000, by Jan von Flocken, FOCUS.