Career
She later admitted to having been doped. Thereafter, she never lost to Caulkins again, repeatedly lowering Caulkins" world record in the event, three times in 1980 from 4:40.83 to 4:36.29 at the Moscow Olympics, which was boycotted by the United States. Her victory in the 400 m event left silver medallist Sharron Davies of the United Kingdom 10 seconds in arrears.
She improved her record to 4:36.10 at Guayaquil in 1982 and it was not bettered until 1997.
She also held the world record in the 200 m individual medley, but was denied a gold medal as the event was cancelled for the 1980 games. She also collected a silver medal in the 400 m freestyle.
She repeated her haul at the 1982 World Championships in Ecuador, winning the medley double and a silver in the 400 m freestyle. She was also named by Swimming World as the European Swimmer of the Year in 1979 and 1980.
However, her Olympic career was ended when the Soviet bloc, including East Germany, staged a retaliatory boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Los Angeles
Schneider attributed her success in swimming (prior to admissions of doping) with the quote
Foreign me swimming is the most beautiful of all sports. Although I have been training for very many years and have taken part in a great number of competitions, I always find something new in this sport. And this I"m sure is greatly to the cr of my coach, Eberhard Mothes, who takes my training sessions at the sport club in Karl-Marx-Stadt and never fails to come up with something interesting or challenging in the course of the work.