Ben Johnson swept medals and records, was caught in the lens of doping control and on March 6, 1993 he was permanently expelled from the sidelines
The gray curtain closed forever on March 6, 1993 and hid behind it the shame that Ben Johnson rarely felt. The Canadian sprinter with his bulging muscles, yellow eyes, terrifying style and unreal for the time records was to become forever synonymous with doping and cheating, stigmatized and fingered among athletes who were not innocent pigeons. The 100m final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics went down in history as “the dirtiest race in history”. Only one of the top five finished his career without being caught on drugs. “The gold medal belongs to me and let me finish fourth,” Calvin Smith said much later. Who knows, of course, what dirt could be hidden – effectively – in his own nest.
Chased by bullies
Ben Johnson was born not in Canada, but in Jamaica in 1961, when Usain Bolt was still a twinkle in his parents’ eyes. He immigrated to Toronto with his father when he was 15 and took refuge in the gym in a desperate attempt to protect himself from school bullies who made fun of him for his stutter. The teenager Benjamin didn’t have the physical strength to return the blows, but he put them on his feet and no one could catch him. His meeting with coach Charlie Francis, who had once finished 8th in the 100 at the Munich Olympics, was to change his life.
“Those of us who go with the cross in hand are condemned to remain in obscurity” the other sprinters told Francis in the 70s. “My athletes are not going to make the same mistake,” he decided. Ben Johnson first heard the word “doping” in 1981, when he was 20 years old. “If you don’t take it, you won’t make it” was the slogan behind the closed locker room doors: “Whoever doesn’t take it, doesn’t make it”. Coach Francis had a doctor by his side named Jamie Astafan. “Don’t worry, everything will be fine” they assured the reluctant young man. Johnson was emaciated and thin at the time. His transformation into a muscular beast began the very next day.
The results came very quickly. Running in the red and black of Canada, Ben Johnson finished second at the 1982 Commonwealth Games and stood on the podium at the Los Angeles Olympics, the ones that made Carl Lewis a world hero. Lewis first saw Johnson’s back in 1985 at the Weltklasse in Zurich and couldn’t believe his eyes. Of the next nine duels between them, on European soil usually in the hunt for gold, the Canadian newcomer won eight. The 1987 World Championships in Rome were the ultimate triumph for Johnson, who broke Calvin Smith’s world record (9.83 from 9.93) and secured $480,000 in sponsorships by sweeping the international awards. Carl Lewis didn’t take it well.
“Johnson had a false start, while I felt weak due to a virus,” he began to say when he saw the microphone of the British ITV in front of him. Until he drew the sword from the sheath: “Suddenly we see athletes coming out of nowhere and achieving incredible performances. I don’t believe they do it without the help of illegal substances. If I was on meds, I’d be running straight 9.80s like him! Lewis, who had a reputation for being arrogant and egotistical, was suddenly targeted. “The guy doesn’t know how to lose” they said back home. “I’m not going to bad mouth anyone now or in the future,” Johnson himself promised with a humble smirk. Out-of-competition surprise doping controls had not yet been introduced. A bottle of clean urine on the night of the match was equivalent to staying in the bullet proof.
But it seems Johnson’s camp got discouraged or miscalculated the days. His celebrations for a comfortable 9.79 victory in the Seoul final a year later, several meters ahead of Lewis and Linford Christie, were cut short when the result of the doping control was announced. The steroid stanozolol was detected in the gold medalist’s body and the medal was returned along with the record. “It was never mine, so you can keep it,” he said bitterly.
“Our whole nation bears the shame,” commented the representative of the Canadian mission, Paul Dupre. In the investigation that followed, Johnson pleaded guilty. “Everyone is on medication” was justified in the style of a scapegoat and a scapegoat.
The mark of the impostor
Johnson was handed a two-year ban and returned to the ring in 1991, the stigma of a cheat hovering over his shaven skull. The spotlight shone on him in the semi-finals of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, but the 31-year-old Canadian was a shadow of his doped self and finished last. His participation in a meeting in Grenoble in January 1993, where he broke the world record in the 50m race, was the farewell of his career, after the test showed him again drugged. “Johnson is a national disgrace,” cried Canadian Interior Minister Pierre Cantier at the time. “Send him back to Jamaica.”
Ben Jonson never returned to Jamaica. He briefly served as a trainer to the likes of Muammar Gaddafi and Diego Maradona, wrote a book, raced for a living against horses and cars, until he slowly disappeared from public life. The collection of sportswear he created under the brand “Catch Me” went unscathed.
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