Today marks the 50th anniversary of the official birth of the Sporting Crime of the 20th Century - the German Democratic Republic's State Research Plan 14:25.

We mark the moment throughout the course of the day with the following extract and overview and other posts from our archive focussed on the impact of the GDR's fraud and an era when the Cold War spilled into sport.

The Plan and the plotting that preceded it sit at the core of the biggest official heist of Olympic medals in history: a state secret held by politicians high to low, doctors, scientists, coaches and others and tightly guarded at an "anti-doping" doping laboratory in Kreischa, a facility accredited by the International Olympic Committee but tasked by the state with hiding not exposing mass cheating.

In swimming, these statistics show the surface count of a scandal and the impact it had on those robbed of rightful rewards and status, on the day and throughout life since:

How GDR Medals Reflected An Assault That Targeted Women

Marking the 50th anniversary of the GDR’s State Research Plan 14:25: alongside an overview , here is a compilation of medals statistics for the GDR women’s swimming team, 1973-1989, with comparisons to the GDR men and women from the USA and rest of the world

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Here are the links to an archive of related articles:

From the Archive - GDR: The Need For Justice & Reconciliation

Sharron Davies Lifts SOS Courage Cup On Front Line Of Fight To Save Women’s Sport

To mark the 50th anniversary of East Germany’s doping State Research Plan 14:25, we recall how Sharron Davies’ lead role in the fight to save women’s sport links the events of the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s to today’s battle to ring fence women’s sport for females only

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Ford’s Book Has Bach Backing Fight To “Right Wrongs” Of GDR Doping After Decades Of IOC Inaction

On the 50th anniversary of the official birth of the GDR’s State Plan 14:25 doping program, we recall the first sign of hope that the IOC knows the truth and may one day act on it, Thomas Bach having indicated as much in Michelle Ford’s Turning The Tide with this author

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Justice For Jim Thorpe Removes Last Hope Of IOC Clinging To ‘Statute Of Limitations’ Excuse For Taking No Action On GDR Doping

To mark the 50th anniversary of the GDR’s doping State Research Plan 14:25 we recall the third IOC’s decision in 110 years on Jim Thorpe’s Olympic golds of 1912, the last move removing one of the last ludicrous excuses for failing to embrace a reconciliation and justice process for the GDR era

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

14:25

14:25 was so guarded, so secretive, in common with other "Staatsplan" projects in a series of aims rolled out as official communist state policy and practice that the original document of its existence was ordered to be destroyed by the corrupt politicians who instructed, ordered and approved the work of the plan's architects. We'll get back to how we know 14:25 was real later in the day. Meanwhile, an overview of the Sporting Crime of the 20th Century: