Overview
- The ARD series Geheimsache Doping: Kinder premiered Friday, November 13, 2026, after six years of reporting across more than 50 countries and is now available in the ARD Mediathek.
- ARD investigators estimate at least ten million minors have been given performance‑enhancing substances based on survey data and participation figures, with the true number likely higher because many victims fear disclosure.
- On‑the‑ground undercover reporting found discarded syringes and trainers admitting to supplying steroids in India and multiple suspicious youth deaths and non‑investigations among baseball players in the Dominican Republic.
- Historical state programs — most notably the DDR’s centrally run doping operation — and sport‑system incentives have created know‑how and pressures that persist today, producing long‑term physical, sexual and mental harms for victims.
- Current responses remain limited: anti‑doping bodies often suspend minors while rarely investigating coaches, doctors or parents, forensic gaps hinder detection of doping‑linked deaths, and advocates are pushing for international policy reform.