How it unfolded
At Montreal, the East German women took 11 of 13 events. Going into the last event, the women's 4x100m freestyle relay, the American women had zero gold medals. Shirley Babashoff, who had collected only silvers in individual events, had publicly questioned whether her rivals' physiques and voices were normal, and had been mocked by the press as a swimmer who couldn't accept losing. The United States lined up Kim Peyton, Wendy Boglioli, Jill Sterkel and Babashoff. Trailing after the first two legs, 17-year-old Sterkel went in and swam a leg in the high 55s to catch East Germany, and Babashoff held the gap on the anchor leg. The United States finished in a world-record 3:44.82, East Germany in 3:45.50. Fifteen years later, released Stasi documents confirmed that East German swimmers had been given anabolic steroids without consent from their teenage years, proving belatedly that Babashoff had been right.
Why it still matters
This relay was one of the few victories won against a systematic state doping programme, and it remains a case that questions how the entire record book of that era should be read. East Germany's Montreal results still stand uncancelled in the official record, which is why the Americans' 3:44.82 is still repeatedly cited in anti-doping discussions today. The fact that Babashoff's own testimony took fifteen years to be confirmed by documentary evidence has also become the template for how this sport handles questions of integrity.