The champion of the trap: when Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis at the Seoul Olympics

ben johnson was shaping up to dethrone carl lewis, the most important American sprinter at the Olympic level since the days of Jesse Owens. And on September 24, 1988, on the track of the Olympic stadium in Seoul, Johnson confirmed it and reached the top of the world: won the 100-meter dash gold medal and also broke the world record.

With 26 years, ben johnsonborn in Jamaica but nationalized Canadian, a country to which he emigrated at the age of 14 and which he represented in the Seoul Olympics, was consecrated Olympic champion and became the fastest man in the world. Everyone looked at the number on his back and the big brands, in a few hours, filled his pockets with money.

However, no more than two days passed before the result of the anti-doping control was conclusive: Ben Johnson had tested positive for Stanozolol, an anabolic that strengthened his muscles. In other words: a drug that had helped him run faster. Quickly, the olympic champion became the trap champion.

The champion of the trap: the rivalry with Carl Lewis and the doubts of Ben Johnson

The number that Ben Johnson got in the 100 meter dash at the 88th Seoul Olympics was to hang in a box: 100 meters in 9.79 seconds, a mark that improved the 9.83 in force until that moment as a world record (currently, the Olympic record is Usain Boltwith 9.69 seconds in Beijing 2008, and the world record, in Berlin 2009, also belongs to the Jamaican, with 9.58).

But that number got on the track in seoul by ben johnson it evaporated as fast as his good reputation. And like a dagger, which in addition to having it nailed was removed inside the wound, Johnson saw how the gold medal and the Olympic laurels were hung from the neck of his archrival, American Carl Lewis.

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Immediately, the Canadian pointed directly at Lewis and his team for having harmed him. Johnson claimed that his urine sample had been tampered with and from there he defended his innocence, an argument that was ignored by the IOC.

Canadian Ben Johnson won gold in the 100-meter dash in Seoul ’88, but later tested positive for doping and was stripped of his Olympic title.

It took several years for a ben johnson more mature and thoughtful, although no less indignant, he admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his preparation. But, indirectly, he returned to target his enemy, although without naming him: “Everyone singled me out as a cheater, but I wasn’t the only one who cheated.”

The penalty applied to ben johnson It was two years and from September 1990 he was able to officially return to the slopes. At almost 29 years old, the sprinter was far from being the champion of the trap in Seoul 88, but the young man who had reached the bronze in Los Angeles 84. In fact, he tried to participate in Barcelona 92 ​​but did not even manage to pass the qualifying tests and reach the final of the 100 meters.

The champion of the trap: Ben Johnson’s link with Diego Maradona

In 1993, for repeat offending, the then IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), which is now called “World Athletics”, suspended him for life. He sought to make a living from minor races and some bizarre ones, like racing against horses. And in 1997 he reappeared in the world orbit when he was announced as coach of Diego Maradona, who was about to return to football.

ben johnson met with Diego in Toronto to carry out a special preparation that allowed Maradona to recover the short spike. That Maradona of almost 37 years not only did not recover his speed of yesteryear but in October he retired from football, with a new positive doping on his back.

He also personally trained a son of Muammar Gaddafi who played soccer and was about to join a club in Tripoli, which precisely had Diego as an advisor. In the end, Gaddafi’s son hardly played and worse than that: he ended up testing positive for nandrolone.

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And in those years, in addition, Ben Johnson lived possibly the greatest of his humiliations, although it did not have to do directly with the sport but with a street and criminal anecdote. Walking through Rome, he was mugged by a group of guys who stole $7,300 in cash from him and ran off: the former fastest man in the world couldn’t catch them.