… shamed Seoul sprinter Ben Johnson
THE sprinter was for a short time a world sporting hero, before his exposure as a drug cheat made him athletics’ number one villain.
Gone in 9.79 seconds When Ben Johnson crossed the line first in the men’s 100 metres final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, it should have been one of Canada’s greatest-ever sporting achievements.
Instead, it became one of world sport’s most notorious and shameful episodes, and to this day Johnson’s name remains synonymous with the dark side of athletic competition.
The Jamaican-born sprinter won his duel in Korea against the great Carl Lewis, with whom he had shared a high-profile rivalry throughout the mid-1980s.
Johnson had already beaten the reigning Olympic champion at the 1987 World Championships in Rome, and set a new world record of 9.83 seconds in the process.
Lewis made thinly-veiled accusations that Johnson had won thanks to something other than his own natural talent, but that did not stop the Ontario runner becoming an international star in his own right.
In Seoul he repeated the success of Rome, beating Lewis into second place as he crossed the line in a truly incredible time of 9.79 seconds. However, incredible is exactly what his performance turned out to be.
Three days after receiving his gold medal – an upgrade from the bronze he had claimed in Los Angeles four years previously – Johnson was sensationally stripped of it after traces of banned steroid stanozolol were found in his post-race dope test.
As such, Johnson became the first athlete ever to have an Olympic title revoked for using a banned substance. It was a revelation which stunned the sporting world and made headlines across the globe.
The Baltimore Sun lamented “Drugs turn Johnson’s medal into a piece of fool’s gold”, the Daily Star declared him “The Fastest Junkie on Earth” while the Toronto Sun asked the simple question “Why, Ben?”
British sprinter Linford Christie – whose bronze medal was exchanged for silver following Johnson’s disqualification – reacted by saying he felt sad for the loss of a “great ambassador” for the sport and added: “I’m also sad for athletics because this has been a bad day for us.”
Canadian sports minister Jean Charest said at a hastily-called press conference: “Last Friday night was a moment of great national pride, and in a very short time we have gone from there to now sharing a moment of national disappointment.”
What has he done since?
For his doping offence, Johnson not only had his Olympic title taken from him, but also his world title from the previous year, as well as the world records he set at those events. Lewis’s mark of 9.92 in Seoul became the new world record and it stood for almost three years.
By the ends of their careers five of the eight men who ran that race in Seoul had their careers tainted by doping controversy to one extent or another.
Johnson served an automatic two-year ban and was soon back on the track where he made the Canada squad for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and made the 100m semi-finals. He came home in last place, much to the relief no doubt of the IOC.
The following year he was once again found guilty of doping, but a technicality meant that he avoided a lifetime ban, although he could only run in Canada. Despite that, his last competitive race was in 1993.
Post-retirement, Johnson embarked on perhaps the most bizarre coaching career imaginable. In the late 1990s he helped Diego Maradona maintain fitness during the final days of the Argentine legend’s football career.
Maradona would later describe Johnson in his autobiography, ‘El Diego’, as “the fastest man on earth, whatever anyone says”.
In 1999 things took an even odder turn. Johnson accepted a lucrative 90-day offer to become the fitness coach of Al-Saad Gaddafi, the son of then Libyan dictator Muammar, who was trying everything he could to realise his dream of becoming “the best player in Africa”.
Al-Saad went on to make two appearances in Italy, one for Perugia and another for Udinese.
In 2010 Johnson did a series of interviews in the build-up to the release of his autobiography ‘Seoul to Soul’, in which he made explosive claims about the widespread use of doping among athletes back in the ’80s and also that his drink was spiked by a ‘mystery man’ before that fateful race in Korea.