Drechsler was born in Gera, Bezirk Gera, East Germany. As a teenager she was active in the Free German Youth and in 1984 she was elected to the Volkskammer of East Germany. Initially a very competitive long jumper early in her career as a teenager, Drechsler made a transition into the world of elite sprinting in 1986 at the age of 21. She married Andreas Drechsler in July 1984 and competed as Heike Drechsler from then on. She was coached by Erich Drechsler, her father-in-law. In addition to her Olympic success, Drechsler won two World Championships in the long jump, as well as gold medals in the long jump and the 200 m sprint in the World Indoor Championships 1987. She also had numerous successes in European and German championships. Drechsler's greatest rival in the long jump was Jackie Joyner-Kersee, with whom she was also very good friends. In 1986, Drechsler twice equalled Marita Koch's 200 metres sprint world record and set two long jump world records and equalled one in 1985 and 1986., she had more than four hundred long jump competitions with results over seven meters, more than any other female athlete. According to an article written by Ron Casey, in 1986 Drechsler made significant improvements to her 100 m and 200 m times. In one season she went from an 11.75-second 100 m to 10.91 seconds. Her 200 m time improved from 23.19 seconds to 21.71 seconds in the 1986 season. Her 21.71 second performance for 200 m was run into a head wind of −0.8 m/s. By comparison, Marita Koch's 21.71 second runs in 1979 and 1984 had tail winds of +0.7 m/s and +0.3 m/s respectively. Drechsler's 200 m performance of 21.71 seconds into a head wind is one of the fastest ever run by a woman in the history of track and field. In October 1986, she was awarded a Star of People's Friendship in gold for her sporting success. Several German websites, including her own, claim that Heike Drechsler was voted "Athlete of the Century" in 1999 by the IAAF. This is not quite correct: she was put on the "shortlist", but the award was given to Fanny Blankers-Koen.
Personal records
Long jump
1983: in Bratislava / 1985: in East Berlin 1986: in Tallinn 1988: in Neubrandenburg 1992: in Sestriere Drechsler's 1992 jump in Sestriere was made with a tailwind of 2.1 meters per second, just 0.1 m/s over the allowable level of 2.0 m/s to be considered a world record; it was also performed at an altitude of greater than 1000 meters above sea level, which is the level beyond which marks are designated to have been achieved "at altitude." The jump is 11 cm longer than the current world record.
200 metres
1986: 21.71 seconds in Jena 1986: 21.71 seconds in Stuttgart
There were many accusations of drug use while she competed for East Germany. She has never failed a drug test during her career; however, all East German athletes competing abroad were tested before departure to avoid getting caught. In 2001, the BBC claimed she has admitted to unknowingly taking prohibited substances in the early 1980s under orders from her team doctors. In 1991, after the fall of East Germany, Brigitte Berendonk and Werner Franke found several theses and dissertations quoting former GDR doping researchers in the Military Medical AcademyBad Saarow. The basis of the work reconstructed state-organized doping practices involving many well-known GDR athletes, including Heike Drechsler. Indications were that Heike Drechsler used high doses of Oral Turinabol plus more testosterone ester injections before competitions from 1982 to 1984. In 1993, Drechsler challenged Brigitte Berendonk, accusing her of lying in a lawsuit. In the case, the full annual dosage schedules, and charts of the development of sport performance as a function of the dosage amount, were released. Drechsler lost the lawsuit. However, Drechsler continued to win titles after the DDR time, when she started for the merged German team and was tested regularly.
