Ben
Johnson Stripped of Gold!
Ben Johnson was born
on December 30th 1961 in Falmouth Jamaica. He immigrated to Canada
in 1976 where he currently lives in Scarborough Ontario.
He won two bronze
medals in the 1984 Olympic Games for the 100m sprints and the 4x 100 relay. He
also won Gold at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, but this was withdrawn due to
cheating.
Johnson represented
Canada at these games and met coach Charlie Francis at York university around
1977. Charlie Francis was Canada’s national sprint coach for nine years.
He established himself
as Canada’s number one sprinter and was well known, he was a celebrity runner.
Over his Olympic career his goal was to beat rival runner Carl Lewis. It took
eight consecutive races for Johnson to beat Lewis. Lewis couldn’t believe that
Johnson had won. This was the start of a long time rivalry between the pair. In
the 1987 world championship at Rome Johnson had won 4 times against Lewis. He
went on to beat Lewis again setting a new world record of 9.83 seconds.
Following the win of
Johnson, Lewis tried to explain himself he said: “There
are gold medallists at this meet who are on drugs, that [100 meters] race will
be looked at for many years, for more reasons than one.” Jonson 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.”
This followed into a rivalry at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
In 1988 Johnson sustained a few setbacks to
his running career. In February he pulled a hamstring and then pulled it again
in May. In the games Johnson beat Lewis
in the final, lowering his personal best (the world record at the time) to 9.79
seconds. He claimed that he would have been faster if he hadn’t raised his
hands before the finishing line. The Canadian people rejoiced at his winning
the gold medal and breaking the world record.
Three days later Johnson lost his gold
medal as his urine sample tested positive for the drug Stanozolol (a
performance enhancing, prescription only drug). In retaliation to being caught
Johnsons coach claimed that Johnson was one of many cheaters, but just happened
to get caught. Johnson was suspended for three years and made a comeback in
1991, but failed to qualify for the world championships. He made the 1992
Olympic 100m team, but came last in his semi final heat.
In 1993 he was banned for life from the
International Association of Athletics Association as he was caught taking
drugs again. In 1999 this was appealed and Johnson was able to compete, but no
one in Canada wanted to race against a cheat. Late in the same year he was
caught for the third time with a positive drug test.
In conclusion the first part of Johnsons
career was very successful, but unfortunately he ruined it for himself by
taking drugs.
By Jack Wellwood.
I enjoyed studying someone I new very little about. He was a disappointment to his country. Imagine all the money they spent on him to fly hm to Seoul, provide food and accommodation, just for him to be disqualified. More importantly I think he let himself down. I think that I wrote this well however I would wrote a longer conclusion had I had the chance to redo it.
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