SwimmingWorld and SwimVortex launch petition asking FINA to recognize all victims during during the DDR Olympic Reign

See open letter and petition on change.org, plus articles on SwimmingWorld and SwimVortex

On behalf of the swimming community worldwide, we are calling on FINA to recognize all victims during this dark period in Olympic history and to lobby the International Olympic Committee to take similar action.

When Nelson Mandela passed away of late, his story reminded us all of the need to acknowledge the past and then leave it in the past so that reconciliation and healing can take place and a new beginning made. Without acknowledgement, swimming cannot move on.

We therefore ask the following:

1.  That FINA acknowledge that the aquatic records were tainted during the DDR era.

2. That FINA acknowledge that there were victims on both sides of the podium.

3. That FINA place an asterisk next to all DDR era swimmers, explaining that they were unknowingly doped.

4. That FINA acknowledge a second tier of new medal standings (consisting of those not recognized) alongside the existing standings of DDR victims.

5. That FINA not ask for DDR swimmers to return their medals.

6. That FINA award duplicate medals to those athletes who have a new standing.

7. That FINA remove from its list of Pin winners all GDR officials, including the convicted Dr Lothar Kipke, a former Medical Commission delegate who was found guilty of harm to minors in the German doping trials of the late 1990s.