East German Cites Doping Nasal Spray : Olympics: Swimmer says drug developed before games in Seoul was virtually undetectable.

FRANKFURT, Germany —  Experts in former East Germany developed a doping nasal spray before the 1988 Olympics that was virtually undetectable, a leading swimmer alleged today.

Raik Hannemann, who Monday admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs, said that the spray had the same effect as anabolic steroids and that traces of its use would disappear after three days.

Hannemann and other athletes today accused former East German sports chiefs of developing a perfect, systematic doping program and of offering hard currency as an incentive for taking drugs.

Meanwhile, the magazine Stern said East German experts conducted experiments on athletes with drugs designed to improve their performances by influencing their nervous system.

Hannemann, writing in a bylined article for the Berliner Kurier am Abend newspaper, said the nasal spray was developed by East German sports doctors.

“This spray will make you unbeatable at the Olympics,” Hannemann quoted the doctors as telling athletes. He said the doctors made it possible “that we never had any fear of (doping) controls.”

On Monday, Hannemann wrote in his column that he started taking anabolic steroids in 1985, at the urging of his club coach. “We all took them,” he wrote.

Taking drugs, Hannemann wrote today, “was an obligation. A weapon in the class struggle. And many even believed it.”

He blamed Manfred Ewald, former chief of the East German Sports Federation, for urging athletes to take drugs. The federation was the all-powerful umbrella organization that ran East Germany’s highly successful sports program.

Joerg Woithe, the 1980 100-meter freestyle Olympic champion, told Sportecho that Ewald and his deputy Horst Roeder had urged athletes to take drugs.

Woithe was quoted as saying that he was offered hard currency to take anabolic steroids before the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He said the offer was made during talks with the president of his swimming club and an official from the sports federation.

Woithe said the officials urged him to take steroids because they wanted him to swim the 100- and 200-meter races in addition to the 50-meter event in Seoul.

Statements by Hannemann and Woithe could cast a cloud over the united German swimming team for the World Championships in Australia in January.

Both men swam for Dynamo Berlin, and six Dynamo club members made the team at the first all-German championships in November. They include Olympic champions Daniela Hunger, Manuela Stellmach and Katrin Meissner.