In the early 1970s, the athletes of the German Democratic Republic started to achieve incredible sports results, winning medals and setting new world records with astonishing frequency. For many years, their sporting supremacy was hailed as a triumph of the socialist government's commitment to scientific research and innovative training methods. But after the Cold War ended, the Stasi archives revealed a sinister secret behind the successes: a perverse doping system imposed by the government itself. Drugs were administered to young athletes, often without their consent, and the price their bodies are now paying is very high, both physically and mentally. Through the athletes' personal stories, Synthetic Medals reveals the events that led to the discovery of the state-doping system and the subsequent trial. It also explores the state's motives for this crime against its own people - people who were sacrificed on the altar of a distorted ideology, for the simple purpose of achieving glory on the international chessboard.

Joseph Tudor is an Italian-British educator who specialises in tutoring special needs children. He holds a degree in science and one in humanities and has taught chemistry and history for more than 20 years. He has a long-standing interest in the Cold War period and has studied it extensively through many visits to the former East Germany. He has published a book on the topic in Italian. Synthetic Medals is his first work in English.