A Big Splash By The Mighty M�dchen

Ender, who held three world records going into the championships, was the most ballyhooed of the East German girls. She won the 100 butterfly and lowered her world mark in the 100 freestyle to 57.54, but not before being upset in the 200 individual medley by her 16-year-old teammate, Andrea Hubner. Hubner's 2:20.51 shattered Ender's world record and left her sulking for 24 hours. The East Germans also played who's-got-the-record in the 400 individual medley. Angela Franke, all of 15, was the world's best upon arriving in Belgrade, only to lose the race—and the record—to compatriot Gudrun Wegner, her elder by three years. The five-minute barrier had long been a formidable one in the event, but Wegner smashed well through it with a 4:57.51.

The emergence of so much talent at once is the result of a broad-based fitness program in which 90% of GDR children learn to swim by age 4. This enables the coaches to identify promising swimmers early. They also pay more attention to fluid mechanics and sports medicine than most U.S. coaches, and the brawn and explosive power of their women in Belgrade suggested that they are more heavily into weight training, too. Rumors that the GDR women take steroids were denied by Head Coach Rudolf Schramme, who discussed his team one night over a beer in the restaurant of the futuristic Putnik Hotel, where the GDR was billeted.

"Everybody wants to know our secret, but we have no secret," he said, trying to be heard over Serbian folk music played by a well-amplified combo. "For years we have watched the Americans. One thing we learned from them is to hold many, many meets, because swimmers must be competitively hardened. But there's also one difference. American coaches keep secrets from one another, but in Germany we pool our information." Schramme smiled. "For years we learn from the Americans and now they ask what our secret is."

The budding rivalry will resume when the GDR swimmers journey next summer to Concord, Calif. for a two-day meet with the U.S. Meanwhile, what with the Ulrike Richters, Kornelia Enders and Gudrun Wegners trooping ceaselessly to Tasmajdan's victory stand, some American swimmers, having heard it so often during the week, hummed along as a white-coated band played the GDR anthem, Auferstanden, Aus Ruinen.

Among its other effects, the Belgrade competition also made Bill Lee, North American manager for Speedo, the swim-wear firm, take another look at the East Germans' revealing swimsuits.

"Those suits are gross. You can see everything," Lee had said early in the meet, his moral indignation undoubtedly heightened by the fact that the suits were made by Porolastic, a European competitor. But a couple of days and several East German world records later, Lee disclosed that Speedo would soon be coming out with a similar line of its own.