Watch Out For the G.D.R.

By James L. Graff/Bonn

East Germany first competed in the Olympics under its own flag at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich. The hammer-and-compass banner was hoisted in victory 66 times, countering the G.D.R.'s image as a walled outcast with the impression of an athletic marvel. Four years later, in the last Summer Games not boycotted by a major competitor, East Germany, with 17 million people, earned 40 gold medals; the U.S., with over 200 million, won 34. National medal counts and per capita ratios are, of course, hardly the stuff of Olympic ideals, nor should athletics be pursued for political value. But East Germany is not the only nation to concentrate on such goals. It just seems to be the most successful at it.

In Seoul, a disciplined East German contingent is ready to demonstrate its prowess again, with strong competitors in everything from swimming to marksmanship. Many analysts expect the country's 307 athletes to take home more metal than the 645 Americans, and maybe even more than the 520 competitors from the Soviet Union.

The astounding success of the G.D.R. team has raised inevitable questions of secret drugs or revolutionary training methods. "That's all nonsense," says Karlheinz Gieseler, secretary-general of the West German Sports Federation and a longtime observer of East German sports. "What makes the G.D.R. so great is the successive pruning out and systematic training of their talent."

The process begins with the statistical assessment of the nation's second- and third-graders, who are measured, weighed, timed and questioned. The resulting data is churned through a computer at the German College of Physical Culture in Leipzig, which determines whether a child might have a special aptitude for a certain sport. Says Renate Vogel, a former world champion G.D.R. swimmer and now deputy coach of the West German women's Olympic team: "No one with talent falls through the sieve."

The talent, in turn, is coddled and honed. Promising grade schoolers are channeled into the country's 2,000 training centers. The best of them -- around 9,000 at any given time -- go on to some 25 residential sports schools, where 2,000 full-time trainers, plus doctors, masseurs and cooks, begin building Olympic winners.

"For a top athlete, the G.D.R. is still paradise," East German Swimmer and Defector Jens-Peter Berndt, now a member of the West German Olympic team, told the Bonn daily Die Welt. "Nowhere else do athletes work so intensely and with such concentration. All your problems are taken off your hands." Exhibition meets, medical bills, sponsorship, job worries, troublesome journalists -- all such distractions are largely unknown to them. But there are other pressures. Academic performance and political education are closely monitored. A "socialist family tree" -- no close relatives in the West -- is required for international competition.

An all-powerful state sports apparatus invests this carefully nurtured human capital where it brings the highest dividends in Olympic medals. Little effort is wasted in sports that require large teams or expensive equipment, like water polo, field hockey, fencing or riding.

But the state does not hesitate to spend for the long term. Lutz Hesslich, 29, 1987 world champion and Olympic favorite for the 200-meter cycling-match sprint, has worked with Trainer Gerd Muller for 18 years. "The man knows how to motivate me; he knows how to channel my ambition," says Hesslich. Functionaries also steer potential stars to where they will be most effective. Gabriele Reinsch, 24, started as a high jumper in the fourth grade and moved to shot put after an injury. When she proved too light, she was shifted to discus, and now holds the world's record.

Whether such guidance is benevolent or not, it is useful in collecting a bag of gold that enhances national pride and compensates for the state's political failings. Most athletes are grateful and patriotic. Ulf Timmermann, 25, a member of the ruling Socialist Unity Party and world-record holder in shot put, speaks of "my obligation to achieve high performances in sport as a contribution to strengthening our Republic." More tangible benefits include world travel and a genuine popularity at home.

Still, some are beginning to question the system. Parents are less likely to approve of the state's stifling embrace of their promising children, and East Germany's recreational athletes resent the millions dedicated to the elite. East German stars would like the state to take a smaller share of the millions they earn in Western appearance fees. Consider the revolutionary statement of World Class Sprinter Silke Moller last month. "Material concerns should never stand in the foreground in sports," said Moller. "But they can play a role, even for G.D.R. athletes."

Stress fractures in East Germany's smooth sports machine? Perhaps. But at Seoul and beyond, the state's fine tuning will likely keep it rolling on the road to triumph.