East Germany quickly became a swimming powerhouse in the early 1970s, which, as would later be revealed, was due to a systematic doping program that had started the decade prior.
East Germany won 25 medals at the 1968 Olympics. The nation then took home 66 medals in 1972, and in 1976, that number climbed to 90.
In the pool, the East German women were particularly dominant, though that didn’t come to fruition until the Olympic cycle leading into 1976.
At the 1972 Games in Munich, the U.S. women won eight of the 14 available gold medals in swimming, with Australia claiming five and Japan securing one. The East German team won four silvers and one bronze, but that changed the following year.
East Germany topped the medal table at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships, and at the 1975 Worlds, their women’s team won 10 of 14 events on the women’s side.
That included the women’s 400 freestyle relay, an event the Americans had largely dominated at the Olympics over the course of history, having claimed nine of the 13 gold medals awarded in the event, including four in a row.
The U.S. had set the world record at 3:55.19 in 1972, and East Germany had brought it down to 3:48.80 by the time the 1976 final rolled around.
The East German team neared the world record in the prelims, as Kornelia Ender, Petra Priemer, Andrea Pollack and Claudia Hempel combined for a time of 3:48.95, while the Americans sat back as the 3rd seed in 3:50.27.
Facing long odds in the final, the American women pulled off a historic upset, as Kim Peyton (56.95), Wendy Boglioli (55.81), Jill Sterkel (55.78) and Shirley Babashoff (56.28) combined for a time of 3:44.82, obliterating the world record by nearly four seconds while upending the East Germans (3:45.50) by a fairly decisive margin.
Unlike in recent Olympic swimming competitions, the 400 free relay did not come at the start of the 1976 Games. The race was on July 25, and six days earlier, East Germany had Ender (55.65) set a new world record in the 100 free as she went 1-2 with Priemer (56.49), while the Americans failed to reach the podium.
Peyton (56.81), Babashoff (56.95) and Sterkel (57.06) placed 4th, 5th and 7th, respectively, while East Germany’s Hempel was 6th.
But nonetheless, the American quartet pulled it off, and last year, the swimmers were honored by being inducted into the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Hall of Fame.
Watch The Race Below:
Video courtesy of AreteSwim on YouTube
Despite requests from the USOC to redistribute the medals won at the 1976 Olympics after an admission from East Germany’s Pollack regarding the doping program, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had no intention of revising the record books.
The U.S. protested on behalf of its women’s 400 medley relay team that won silver behind the East Germans in 1976, and a similar petition was made by the British Olympic Association on behalf of swimmer Sharron Davies, who was the silver medalist in the women’s 400 IM at the 1980 Olympics behind East German Petra Schneider. In rejecting the appeals, the IOC made it clear it wanted to discourage any protests in the future.
Watching this relay still brings happy tears to my eyes! I wish SO much we could have seen what the super talented 1980 US Olympic Women’s Swim Team could have done against the East Germans. I’ll just never get over that disappointment…
This would be the modern-day equivalent of Australia losing this event
Except, Australia isn’t juiced to the hilt….
The DDR anchor had a miserable relationship exchange.
relay exchange (I hate autocorrect)
Good comments from Donna D about the state of women’s college swimming (AIAW at the time) and the need for well developed NCAA programs.
Along with ridiculous praise for the East German “system”.
Yes, her praise of the East German system is particularly hard to listen to in light of all we have learned about that system’s mandatory and extensive use of steroids in its swimmers.
make swimming great again
By taking drugs?
Swim technique has come a long way in almost 50 years
Jill Sterkel was only 15 years old in 1976, and had the fastest split in the race (55.78) – not just the fastest split for the US; the fastest split across all 8 teams (and faster than the 3 East Germans and 2 Americans who beat her in the individual 100m freestyle final at that same Olympics). I put her performance up with 2008 Lezak as a truly clutch swim.
And Boglioli, who was primarily a flyer, had the 3rd fastest split in the race – nobody would have ever predicted that.
After rewatching the race, it looks like it’d have been an even more thrilling race if Pollack hadn’t blown her turn.
That’s just how they turned back then. East Germans were notorious for horrible turns.
Its hard to turn a tank around 🙂