German swimmer Steffen welcomes testing times

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Britta Steffen almost seems pleased to see the people from doping control whenever they show up for their unannounced tests.

"The testing is the best thing that can happen to us," the German swimmer told Reuters a few hours after being subjected to the unpleasant scrutiny involved in providing urine and blood samples for about the 12th time this year.

"It's another chance to prove you're clean. Unfortunately we can't influence how often we're tested. But if it were up to me I'd give a sample every day. I don't have anything to hide."

Steffen, 24, set a 100 meters world record and won four gold medals at the European championships in 2006, and is one of the favorites for the freestyle sprints at the Beijing Olympics.

After toiling anonymously for years in the shadow of team mate Franziska van Almsick, Steffen has succeeded her retired friend as a major figure in German advertising.

The fame and fortune have not changed Steffen's outlook on life, however. She lives in the same one-room flat, costing 100 euros ($157) per month in rent, and survives on the 400 euro-a-month budget she has got by on since she was 16.

"I don't know what I'd spend money on even if I had the time to spend it," said Steffen, an industrial engineering student.

"I've got everything I need. The tickets to eat in the student cafeteria are three euros and I'm not really interested in going out or going shopping. So 400 euros is plenty."

OWN ROOM

Steffen grew up in Schwedt, a once-thriving industrial town in East Germany. After German unification in 1990, Schwedt and the local economy fell upon hard times. Jobs at the big refinery disappeared, unemployment rose and the population shrank.

"I shared a 10-square-metre room with my two brothers," said Steffen, who turned six a week after the Berlin Wall fell.

"So when I got my own room at the sports academy in Potsdam (age 12) it was pure luxury. Later, when things starting going better, I didn't want to change what helped me get where I was."

However, the tall swimmer with a friendly smile knew she had to change something in her life after a dismal Olympics in 2004.

In training she was one of Germany's best, sometimes beating van Almsick, but she could never replicate those times in races and disappointed herself in Athens. So she quit for a while.

"I couldn't stand swimming any more." Steffen focused on her studies and food. She gained about eight kilos during her six months away from the sport.