Ben Johnson (Canadian sprinter)

File:Olympic-rings.png File:BenJohnson.jpg Ben Johnson at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Bronze medal	1984 Los Angeles	Athletics Men's 100 m
Bronze medal	1984 Los Angeles	Athletics Men's 4x100 m relay

Benjamin Sinclair "Ben" Johnson (born December 30, 1961) was a Canadian athlete, best known for his disqualification for doping use after winning the 100 m final in the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Born in Falmouth, Jamaica, Johnson emigrated to Canada in 1976. He made his debut at a major international tournament at the 100 m at the 1983 World Championships, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals.

The following year, Ben Johnson reached the final of the 100 m at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, finishing third behind Carl Lewis. With the Canadian 4 x 100 m relay team, he won a second bronze medal.

Road to the 1988 Olympics

It was in a quiet meeting with Charlie Francis, his coach, in Toronto in September 1981, three months before his 20th birthday that Francis brought up the subject of steroids. He informed Johnson that steroids represented 1 per cent of performance, or the equivalent of one metre in the 100 metres, and he suggested that it was time to put Johnson in touch with his doctor. And it was a few days later that Johnson phoned Francis. He had made up his mind, and yes, he wanted that extra metre.

By the time that Johnson started taking steroids in 1981, Ben's future rival Carl Lewis had already become accustomed to having people accuse him of doing the same. The rumours connecting Lewis to drugs began at college, they were inflated at the World Championships in 1983 and went so far as to take the shape of a story that he was on gorilla hormone and that a cyst the size of a golf ball had grown on his chest.

In 1985, after seven consecutive losses, Johnson did finally beat Lewis and he would spend the next two years repeating the trick. But in the same way that Johnson’s celebrity remains forever attached to Lewis, the enormity of Seoul 1988 was based hugely on the events of 1987.

In May 1987, Lewis’s father died of cancer and it was at the funeral that Lewis pulled from his pocket his gold medal from the Los Angeles 100 metres and put it in his father’s hands. “I want you to have this,” he said, “because it was your favourite event.” When his mother expressed her surprise, he said calmly: “Don’t worry, I’ll get another one.”

But by the time of the World Championships, later that summer, Johnson had won their previous four races and Lewis’s words were beginning to look foolhardy. And Rome would only rubber-stamp the fact that Johnson had dethroned the king. Johnson smashed the world record, he won in 9.83 seconds, almost exactly a metre ahead of Lewis, exactly the lead that Francis once told him the steroids could provide.

All Lewis could manage in return was a controversial interview on British television. “There are gold medallists at this meet who are on drugs,” he said. “That (100 metres) race will be looked at for many years, for more reasons than one.” To which Johnson later replied: “When Carl Lewis was winning everything, I never said a word against him. And when the next guy comes along and beats me, I won’t complain about that either.”

Going into 1988, then, the “great 100 metres duel” barely existed as a phenomenon because Johnson was so far ahead. Johnson had indeed inherited the earth: he had meanwhile become a massive commercial magnet and in Canada, the desertion of Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton for the Los Angeles Kings would ensure that he became the foremost national sporting treasure. For Canadians, Johnson was putting one over big brother next door and they loved him for it.

But, in almost every way, 1988 would be a terrible year for him. In February he pulled a hamstring, in May he would aggravate the same injury and in June he found himself the centre of a power struggle between Francis and Jamie Astaphan, the doctor who monitored his drugs programme. And all the while, Lewis was finding his form. In Paris in June, Lewis ran a 9.99 and boasted: “All I know is that I’m running better than ever and Ben isn’t running at all.”

Then in Zurich, on August 17, when the two faced each other for the first time since Rome, Lewis won in 9.93 with Johnson finishing third. “The gold medal for the (Olympic) 100 metres is mine,” Lewis bragged afterwards. “I will never again lose to Johnson.”

Was Johnson panicked by all this into a late run to the drugs cabinet? Not according to Francis. In his book, Speed Trap, Francis relates that Johnson simply returned to Toronto to complete, as planned, his final pre-Olympic drugs programme: three steroid injections plus three more of human growth hormone. Thereafter, Johnson and Francis’s other sprinters would receive treatment on a diapulse machine, to help to remove the steroids from their systems, and later a diuretic to prevent weight gain.

Johnson ran 9.79 after his worst year’s preparation, so how fast would he have gone had his body and his training not been afflicted by those two injuries?

Da Silva said “I remember we went to our marks and my heart was beating so fast. I remember Ray Stewart had a problem with his leg and he stopped at 40 metres and disconnected from the race. Then I remember watching Ben Johnson’s back. He was like the speed of light.

“Then I saw the clock stop at 9.79 and I thought: ‘Jesus, this is one of the most special moments of track and field of all time and I was in this race.’

Stewart added: “Ben was pretty much in a class by himself that day but the bad part of it is, when you look at people pointing fingers at each other, they are as dirty as Ben. “At that point, it was not only Ben. There was other disturbing news coming out with other names. Most of them were on (drugs), based on everything that happened after the Olympics — all those scandals coming out. There was a lot more than people were hearing. They might just catch one person and make an example of them but others are walking scot-free.”

Olympic scandal

File:BenJohnson1988Seoul100m.jpg

Johnson winning at the 1988 Olympic games

At the 1987 World Championships, in Rome, Johnson gained instant world fame when he beat Lewis for the title, setting a new world record of 9.83 seconds as well. Johnson and Lewis were also the favourites for the 1988 Olympic title. On September 24, Johnson beat Lewis in the final, clocking a new world record of 9.79 seconds. However, Johnson's urine samples were found to contain stanozolol, and he was disqualified three days later.

He later admitted having used steroids when he ran his 1987 world record, which caused the IAAF to delete that record from the books as well. But Johnson and hundreds of other athletes have long complained that they used doping in order to remain on an equal footing with the other top athletes on drugs they had to compete against.

His claim bears some weight in light of the revelations since 1988. Including Johnson, four of the top five finishers of the 100-meter race have all tested positive for banned drugs at one point or another. They are Carl Lewis, who was given the gold medal, along with Linford Christie who was moved up to the silver medal, and Dennis Mitchell. Of these, only Johnson was forced to give up his records and his medals, although he was the only one of the four who tested positive or admitted using drugs during a medal-winning performance. Later, Christie was caught using steroids and banned. According to documents released in 2003 by a former senior US anti-doping official, Dr. Wade Exum, Lewis and two of his training partners all took the same three types of banned stimulants (ones found in over-the-counter cold medicine), and were caught at the 1988 US Olympic trials, which is the competition used to select the US athletes that will compete in the Olympics.

Johnson's coach, Charlie Francis, a vocal critic of the IOC testing procedures, is the author of Speed Trap, which features Johnson heavily. In the book he freely admits that his athletes were taking anabolic steroids, as all top athletes are, but also shows why Ben Johnson could not possibly have tested positive for that particular steroid.

Aftermath of Seoul and the Dubin Inquiry

Johnson’s urine sample was analysed on Sunday, September 25 at the IOC-accredited laboratory in Seoul, under the direction of Dr Jongsei Park. As is customary practice, the specimen was split into two parts, the A and B samples. Only the A was tested and there were 90 nanograms of stanozolol, an anabolic steroid, found.

The laboratory did not know the identity of the athlete who had provided the sample they were testing. All they had was a code number, but Park, a member of the IOC medical commission, informed Prince Alexandre de Merode, the chairman, of the adverse finding. Under doping protocol there is no positive test until the B sample confirms the finding, which, in almost every case, it does.

The Prince was staying with the other IOC members in the Shilla Hotel, a newly appointed building in the centre of the city surrounded by a hilly garden, round the perimeter of which there were armed guards in sentry boxes. In the safe in his room, the Prince kept the list detailing which individual competitor corresponded with which code number. So it was the Prince who, sitting alone at his desk, was the first to know that the sample belonged to Johnson.

He immediately wrote a letter to Carol Anne Letheren, the chef de mission of the Canada team, informing her of the result and saying that a three-strong delegation could be present at the analysis of the B sample. This letter was hand-delivered to the Canadian headquarters at 1.45am and Letheren was woken to read it.

Letheren alerted Dr William Stanish, the chief medical officer of the Canada team, and they discussed the matter with two other officials and then with David Lyon, one of the two leaders of the athletics team, at about 7am. Letheren, Lyon and Stanish next spoke to Francis for about an hour in the Canadian medical clinic.

They also discussed the finding and Stanish spoke with Dr Jamie Astaphan, Johnson’s medical adviser, about what medication Johnson was taking and specifically about steroids. Both Astaphan and Francis denied that Johnson was taking hormone drugs.

Stanish, Francis and Lyon then went to the Olympic laboratory for the B sample analysis and were interviewed by three members of the IOC medical commission, Professor Arnold Beckett, of Britain, Professor Manfred Donike, of West Germany, and Park. Beckett’s opening words were: “We have a problem with the A sample, can you account for any adverse finding?” Because Stanish could not give any details about what medicines Johnson was taking, Lyon went to find the sprinter, who came to the laboratory carrying a bag containing several bottles and packets, as well as a two-page note from Astaphan providing details.

The drug was then disclosed as stanozolol and Beckett asked Johnson specifically whether he had taken anabolic steroids. Johnson denied it. The Canadians then ensured that the B sample to be tested was indeed that of Johnson before leaving.

At about 3.30 that afternoon, a meeting was convened in the suite at the Shilla with Dick Pound, a Canadian lawyer and IOC vice-president. Also present were Jim Worrall, the other Canadian IOC member, Dr Roger Jackson, president of the Canadian Olympic Association, Letheren, Francis, Stanish and Lyon. It was agreed that since Johnson had denied taking drugs, the defence would centre on the theory that the sample had been sabotaged.

Pound contacted Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC vice-president, to ensure that it was appropriate for him (Pound) to represent Johnson. At 10pm he led the Canadian delegation at the meeting of the IOC medical commission, chaired by Merode and consisting of 26 people. After a two-hour discussion, the commission told the Canadians that it would be recommending Johnson’s disqualification at a meeting, eight hours later, of the executive board, which took place in another room at the Shilla, starting at 8.30am.

The Canadian delegation returned to its headquarters and Letheren retrieved the gold medal from Johnson and made arrangements for him, his mother, sister and Astaphan and his wife to be flown to Toronto. When they arrived at Seoul airport at about 8am on that Monday, members of the world’s press were waiting for them. The word was out. There was mayhem.

I had already been woken at 3.58am in Seoul, just as the first edition of The Times of the previous night was about to go to press. Within an hour, a front-page story had been written, despite the interruption of Charlie Wilson, then editor of The Times, shouting down the phone: “It’s all your fault, Goodbody, you invented anabolic steroids.”

After the Seoul test he initially denied doping, but, testifying before the 1989 Dubin inquiry, a Canadian government investigation into drug abuse, he admitted that he had lied. Charlie Francis, his coach, told the inquiry that Johnson had been using steroids since 1981.

Claims of Sabotage

Of all the stories uncovered by Ben Johnson’s positive drugs tests, few were more curious than the mystery man seated alongside the Canadian sprinter in the waiting room at the main stadium as he was preparing to give his urine sample. Supporters of Johnson seized on this lapse in security to claim that there had been sabotage. They argued that the sprinter had been deliberately given stanozolol, the anabolic steroid, possibly slipped into the beer he was drinking so that he could produce the urine specimen.

For Charlie Francis, Johnson’s coach, it was the only rational reason for the positive test for stanozolol because he believed, wrongly, that his athlete was taking furazabol, which needed about 14 days to clear the body, rather than stanozolol, which required about 28 days.

Johnson and the mystery man were pictured together in the waiting room, chatting to each other. They had last seen each other in the Ritz, a private nightclub in Zurich, where both were attracted to the same supermodel. So Johnson, who was accompanied to the waiting area by Waldemar Matuszewski, his physiotherapist, talked to the man, much later revealed to be André Jackson, a French-born U.S. citizen. What they thought was a remarkable breach of drug-testing protocol was actually an officially authorized member of the Santa Monica Track Club and USA Track and Field. It would have been pretty unusual that any person who was not officially accredited could succeed in entering the waiting room for competitors preparing to give their samples, particularly in such a high-profile event as the 100 metres.

In the immediate aftermath of Johnson being disqualified, there was an widespread hunt for the “mystery man”, with one Canadian offering $10,000 if he would come forward. What Johnson did not know and has only subsequently been revealed is that Jackson, a sportsperson who travelled the world participating in track events, was a close comrade of Carl Lewis.

In his book, Inside Track, Lewis states: “I’m not sure how André got into that particular drug-testing room. He probably got one from an Olympic official. Anyway, I was surprised when I looked in the waiting area and saw André sitting with Ben. Once I had provided my urine sample, I left the drug-testing room and found André to ask him what was going on.”

Jackson sparked claims of sabotage when he was seen waiting with Johnson on the warm-up track and inside the drug-testing room.

Jackson said he was just waiting for Lewis and making sure he would be needed by Joe Douglas to serve as a witness for Lewis’ drug test. However, when Matuszewski then began using a machine to relieve Johnson’s leg cramps, Jackson decided to stay. Lewis wrote: “He [Jackson] and others on the track circuit knew about Ben doing drugs and he was suspicious about this machine. André had seen the therapist carry a medical bag into the room and he wanted to make sure that the therapist did not give Ben anything more than a rub-down before Ben urinated into his drug-test bottle.”

Sabotage was rejected by the IOC medical commission, but the Dubin Inquiry later examined whether the positive finding was the result of the actions of the stranger, whose identity was unknown at that stage, in the doping control room. They interviewed the Canadians who were with Johnson in the waiting room but said that there was no evidence that Jackson had administered any drug to Johnson.

The plot thickens and becomes more interesting. Numerous attempts by Johnson along with his supporters were made to track Jackson down, but all attempts to locate the Mystery Man were unsuccessful.

Shortly after the Olympics, Jackson abandoned the track world and made considerable efforts to steer clear of Canada’s Dubin Inquiry or any other questions regarding American athletes using performing enhancing drugs. It was rumored that he was living in posh seclusion within the impoverished country of Zaïre, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Johnson discovered from inside track sources that Jackson was quietly commuting between Zaïre, Dallas, Houston and Washington DC. He managed to obtain Jackson’s cell phone number and after months of frustrating calls, Johnson’s persistence pays off when Jackson unexpectedly answers the phone.

Following a brief telephone discussion, Jackson assured Johnson that he would receive a surprise visit when he is ready to have that discussion, as indicated by Johnson. A few days subsequent to that phone call, Jackson responded by calling to inform Johnson that he was en route to Toronto. He instructed Johnson to meet him at the airport and within two hours later, Jackson’s chartered aircraft was landing at Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport.

According to Johnson, the reunion was quite brief with Jackson openly admitting to saving Johnson some embarrassment at a pre-Olympic meet in Rome to expose him as the world watched on in Seoul. Johnson maintained that Jackson had finally admitted to being responsible for devising and implementing the biggest scandal in the history of sports.

The Mystery Man then turned and confidently strolled in the direction of his aircraft, without ever looking back.

At that moment, his unusual entrances, precise whereabouts and mysterious exits became just as puzzling as Ben Johnson’s positive urine sample in Seoul

Canadian reaction to 9.79

Canadians rejoiced in the reflected gloryof their hero and newspapers covered the occasion by concocting wordssuch as "Benfastic" (Toronto Star, September 25, 1988).

Two days later, Canadians witnessed the downfall of their hero when he was stripped of his gold medal and world record after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid. In the first week following the de-throning, Canadian newspapers devoted between five to eight pages a day to the story. Television stations matched their efforts. Both the media and the public engaged in extensive efforts to "explain" this shattering event. Some squarely placed the blame onBen, such as one headline right after the exposure suggests: "Why Ben?Why?" (Toronto Sun, September 26, 1988).

Comeback

In 1991, after Johnson's suspension he attempted a comeback, but without much success. In 1993, he was found guilty of doping at a race in Montreal, and was subsequently banned from the sport for life by the IAAF.

His disqualified world record 100 m time of 9.79 seconds was not surpassed until September 14, 2002, by Tim Montgomery.

Johnson also briefly acted as trainer for Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona in 1987

Johnson / Gadhafi connection

In 1999 Johnson made headlines again when it was revealed that he had been hired by Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi to act as a soccer coach for his son, Al-Saadi Qadhafi, who aspired to join an Italian soccer club. Johnson's publicist in Canada predicted in The Globe and Mail that this would earn Johnson a Nobel Peace Prize.

See also

• List of athletes found guilty of using banned drugs

External link

• 1988: Gold for Johnson in 100m sprint On This Day, September 24, BBC News.