FROZEN IN TIME
The Olympic Stadium in Seoul is packed and all eyes are on two men - the defending champion Carl Lewis and his brash, young rival and world title holder Ben Johnson. The 100 metres final is being hyped as the race of the century, but the two main players in this drama are cool as cucumbers as they await the starting gun.
In the blink of an eye, it's all over. Johnson, the Jamaica-born Canadian, explodes down the track, takes 46 strides and in just 9.79 seconds claims the most coveted gold medal at the Olympic Games.
'I knew when the gun went off, the race was over. No one can take this away from me,' says the world's fastest man. But he couldn't be further away from the truth.
Just three days later Johnson is exposed as a drug cheat and a proud moment in Canadian athletic history turns into a nightmare. A routine test on his urine sample finds traces of an anabolic steroid called stanozolol.
His phenomenal time is wiped from the record books, the gold medal is handed to Lewis and Johnson goes home in disgrace.
Johnson loses millions in endorsements and sponsorship fees and is suspended from competition for two years. Lewis becomes a double gold winner after also winning the long jump at Seoul and a six-time gold medallist in two Olympic Games.
A Royal Commission set up by Canada to investigate the use of drugs in athletics after the Seoul debacle is told many athletes are using banned substances. Under oath, coaches and athletics officials admit that at least 40 per cent of their athletes are using drugs - perhaps as many as 80 per cent. 'The sport will never be clean,' Johnson says. 'It's going to be going on till the end of time.'
Years later, Johnson is still unrepentant and claims he is still 'the best sprinter of all time'. 'Regardless of what I did, I am still the best sprinter of all time,' boasts Johnson. 'The only sprinter maybe better than Ben Johnson was [1964 Olympic 100-metre champion] Bob Hayes.
'If you put Donovan Bailey, Maurice Greene and Tim Montgomery in my race in Seoul, they would finish behind me. It was the greatest race ever run.'
