BERLIN -- Manfred Ewald and the former East German sports machine are not all that's on trial this month in a small courtroom near Berlin's Tiergartenpark.
So are steroids.
Every Tuesday and Friday, a few of the 142 former female athletes involved in this case against Ewald come forward and relay more horror stories.
"There is not a single day without pain," former discus thrower Brigitte Michel, one of many who was force-fed performance-enhancing drugs, testified here last week.
"We looked like men and talked like men," former East German shot put champion Simone Machalett testified on Tuesday.
Ewald, now old and feeble, is a useful symbol of the old system. When a verdict is handed down against him and his former medical director, Dr. Manfred Höppner -- probably sometime next month -- it could send a wake-up call to the world.
Performance-enhancing drugs and treatments have become a bigger problem than ever in recent years, both in the major U.S. team sports and in international competition.
The International Olympic Committee appears ready to take serious steps to crack down on such drugs at this year's Summer Olympics in Sydney.
IOC leader Jacques Rogge told the French newspaper L'Equipe this week that it was "almost certain" that blood tests to detect the stamina-boosting drug erythropoietin -- or EPO -- would be in place for this year's Games.
Many blame the spate of recent deaths among top cyclists in Europe on EPO. Tour de France officials are set to meet Thursday in Geneva and are expected to discuss imposing EPO tests at this year's event.
But although some U.S. sports have had success in cracking down on steroid use -- namely professional football, which tests athletes for the substance -- others haven't.
Baseball, buoyed in recent years by the success of muscle-bound sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, does not test for steroids use. According to players and general managers who discuss the problem off the record, steroid use has become widespread.
Some players say that as many as half a dozen players per team are using steroids. Some put the number even higher.
Where baseball insiders say once only big, strong players trying to bulk up and hit home runs used steroids, now steroids are also used by some smaller players looking to hit a few more homers, and by pitchers, looking to add a few miles an hour to their fastballs.
No one suggests such practices are morally equivalent to communist functionaries in white jackets feeding young girls steroids and calling them "vitamins."
But the common thread is the pressure to excel at the expense of long-term physical and mental considerations.
Ewald, 73, was a member of the Communist Party's central committee starting in 1963 and conceived and oversaw the East German doping program that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s. He and his cohorts are accused of giving steroids to girls as young as 11 -- and intimidating those who raised objections, accusing them of "cowardice."
Ewald allegedly told the hundreds of people working for him that "everything is allowed" in boosting performance levels, which in turn would enhance the glory of the East German state through sports prowess.
The women now appearing in a Berlin courtroom during the widely followed trial have endured a wide range of health problems. Some became infertile because of the steroids. Many endured excessive body hair, deepening of their voices, and liver, kidney, and menstrual problems.
Machalett told the court on Tuesday that a gynecologist informed her she would not be able to bear children if she continued competing. When she was 19, her liver failed -- because of the mixture of steroids and contraceptive pills she had been taking.
Ute Krause, a former swimmer, gained weight when she was taking steroids and soon lowered her times. But she told the court on Tuesday that the quick weight gain prompted her to try fasting -- and that to this day she suffers from bulimia as a result.
Krause and some of the others want access to their medical files, an idea that senior prosecutor Klaus-Heinrich Debes rejected, urging the women not to complicate the case.
But once the case resumes Friday, lawyers for the plaintiffs are expected to push to have these files opened.
Much could hang in the balance. The more they know, the more the world knows -- and today's athletes using steroids might think twice about risking liver damage and other long-term health problems.
