Heike Friedrich was one of the most successful female freestyle swimmers of the late 1980s and won the 1985 European Championships in both the 100 and 200 metres freestyle as well as relay titles in the 4×100 free, 4×200 free and medley relay. She extended those successes at the 1986 World Championships, with four golds, and at the 1987 European Championships, with five golds. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Friedrich became Olympic champion in the 200 free and in the 4×100 freestyle relay. In 1991, just after German reunification, she retired at the early age of 21.

Friedrich then came under doping suspicion by Brigitte Berendonk and the documents of the Military Medical Academy in Bad Saarow, which was also confirmed between 1998 and 2000 during the GDR doping invetigation. In concrete terms it was announced that in addition to Kristin Otto, Dagmar Hase and Daniela Hunger, Friedrich had taken illegal performance-enhancing substances at the 1989 European Championships at Bonn. The testosterone levels of those female swimmers corresponded to normal male values.