Life On The Pharm

An inside peek at peak performance.

- Andrew Leci

“A GOLD MEDAL – that’s something no one can take away from you.”

Those were the immortal words of Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter who won the 100m event at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Despite a starting eight that boasted, arguably, the best group of sprinters ever assembled (it included reigning Olympic champion Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith and Linford Christie – the last of whom went on to claim gold in the event four years later) Johnson simply blew away the field.

His time of 9.79 seconds was a new world record, breaking his own, and it was hailed as one of the greatest races in Olympic history. Johnson’s performance was touted as one of the seminal moments in track and field. This was an athlete at the peak of his powers, and none of the other runners could live with him.

The problem was, as history revealed, that not only could his gold medal be taken away from him, but it was, only a couple of days later, and in conspicuous ignominy. Johnson failed a drugs test, was disqualified, had to hand his medal back, and returned to his adopted homeland (he moved to Canada from Jamaica as a 15-year-old) in disgrace.

It should have been the start of something; a point in sporting history at which the authorities woke up to the fact that doping was rife and did something about it. And they did; setting up the World Anti-Doping Agency a mere 11 years later. These things take time, apparently.

Ben Johnson was caught red-handed and suffered the consequences. To this day he maintains that he hadn’t done anything that his fellow athletes were not doing, and it’s interesting to note that of that stellar field in 1988, six out of the eight (including the squeaky-clean-imaged Carl Lewis) were sanctioned for drug use at some point in their careers.