Athlete says sports steroids changed him from woman to manStory Highlights
Shot-put star Heidi Krieger was fed steroids by East German coaches

Athlete, who "just felt like a man," had sex-change surgery in 1997

Now called Andreas, Krieger fears today's athletes don't know the risks

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From Frederik Pleitgen
CNN

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Heidi Krieger proved herself one of the world's top athletes in the 1980s, winning medal after medal in the shot put for East Germany.


Andreas Krieger says his body changed soon after he began taking what coaches said were vitamins.

Now, the former sports star looks disdainfully at the awards, dismissing them as "doping medals" and honors that turned a woman into a man.

Heidi Krieger, the 1986 European women's shot-put champion, became Andreas Krieger after a sex-change operation in 1997. He says he had been fed so many steroids by his coaches without his knowledge that physical and emotional problems began.

The young woman's physique changed drastically, as did her feelings. "I felt much more attracted to women and just felt like a man. But I knew I was not lesbian," Krieger told CNN.

Her coaches said they were giving her vitamin pills, but they were actually feeding her Oral-Turinabol anabolic steroids. Watch how Krieger's body changed »

[link to www.cnn.com]