Tuesday night, I watched the ESPN 30 on 30 series documentary, 9.79. It was a great episode about the world record 100M race that Ben Johnson of Canada ran. Then several days later, he tested positive for drugs and was stripped of his gold medal and world record in what was one of the Olympic’s, and track and field’s, bigger drug scandals in history. I found it very interesting and will recap some of the highlights here.

It has been widely known that track and field has been at the forefront of drug use (steroids for lack of a better term) since the 1970’s. In the early 80’s, it was really starting to become prominent especially with the sprinters. In 1984, the Olympic games were held in Los Angeles and that is where Carl Lewis made a big splash as the world’s premier sprinter and jumper. In those games, he equaled Jesse Owens feat of securing 4 track and field gold medals in a single Olympiad.

What was also starting to spread in those games was steroid use. Steroid testing was done for the Americans and the former head of the testing mentioned that there were a number of athletes that tested questionable during those games.

Miraculously, those positive test results disappeared and at that time no one really raised a stink about it.

While Carl Lewis got the gold medal that year in the 100M Dash, Ben Johnson got a bronze. According to Lewis, Ben Johnson never made a blip on the sprint scene. At that time, people felt he just didn’t have the athletic makeup to really make a difference in sprinting. Johnson had an incredible start, but didn’t have the speed endurance to last the entire race. He wasn’t strong enough to maintain that start.

Disheartened by the showing in the 1984 games and perceiving the other top sprinters all taking steroids, Johnson and his coach, Charlie Francis, felt there wasn’t a level playing field. Francis, who despite his involvement with Ben Johnson and steroids, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative sprint coaches of his time. His training methods are revered by many speed coaches. But, Charlie Francis was not going to sit by and continue to train clean athletes who had no shot at winning any race they entered.

Francis put together a drug program for his athletes, Johnson included, that would enhance their strength and really improve their speed. They could train at a higher intensity more often and longer, which would eventually result in faster times. They felt that this was the only way to compete against the other sprinters that were juicing.

The mantra of these sprinters was, “if you don’t take it, you won’t make it.”

Starting in 1985, Ben Johnson began a 3 year dominance over Carl Lewis in the 100M dash. Lewis could not win and after the 1987 world championships in Rome, vented his frustration publicly alluding to other athletes using drugs and how obvious it is.

In the American Olympic trials in 1988, Lewis won the 100M dash, but tested positive for 3 banned stimulants. After talking with the committee, it was decided that it was an inadvertant positive (or something like that) and the test was wrong. In the documentary, there were other runners, even American runners, that alluded to Lewis might have been taking steroids all this time as well. They just didn’t come right out and say it.

So, the 100M final of the Olympics happens and Ben Johnson blows everybody out of the water. Within days, it is revealed that he tested positive for drugs. It was a whole trial back in Canada and Francis and Johnson contend that it was sabotage. They both admitted to taking banned substances, but Francis says that their program was set up where it was out of Johnson’s system by the time the testing happened.

In 2004, Ben Johnson ran into an athlete who was part of Lewis’s track club. In 1988, he was sent into the locker room of Johnson to be a spy and capture on film if Johnson was taking a masking agent. There were photos to verify this. But, Johnson never took a masking agent, but this athlete told Johnson in 2004 he slipped steroids in his beer that he drank. I found it interesting that Johnson was drinking beer the day before the biggest race of his life, but anyways. Lewis’s coach confirmed they sent the guy in to witness anything, but denies that he had the guy plant steroids on Johnson. The athlete refused to go on camera, but issued this, “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”

One interesting note was that head of the testing lab in 1984 had kept over 200 blood samples over the years from that Olympics. With the better testing nowadays, he decided to start testing some of those blood samples and all sorts of positive tests were popping up. He finally decided to stop the testing because as he said, what was going to be the end game besides his own interest.

Another interesting part of the documentary was that they interviewed all 8 finalists in that 100M race. All said that they would never take drugs, never thought about it at the time. Then at the very end, it was mentioned that four of the other athletes in that race (not including Lewis or Johnson) had been banned for some length of time after 1988 for taking banned substances. 5 out of the 8 athletes in that final had been banned for at least 2 years, and 2 for life, for taking illegal substances. Makes you scratch your head.

I found it a very interesting and intriguing documentary that if you find the time to watch it, I highly recommend it. Don’t think that this sport is cleaned up. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if half the athletes in this year’s 100M dash were taking steroids as well. Only time will tell.