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The Gold Rush: The Need For Speed

Pearl, 8.30pm

When Ben Johnson (above) was kicked out of the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988 after testing positive for anabolic steroids, it brought worldwide attention to how prevalent 'performance-enhancing' drugs were in sports.

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While the Canadian sprinter was not the first to test positive for drugs he certainly was the highest-profile athlete to be caught and since then, he has had to live with the word 'disgraced' prefixed to his name.

The 38-year-old Toronto native hasn't made matters easier for himself since Korea as he again tested positive in 1993, after which he was banned for life by the International Amateur Athletics Federation. An appeal to lift the ban was rejected last year.

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But don't shed a tear for Johnson as he has become a rich man from the sport he 'disgraced'. He has since earned his keep from such activities as racing a stock car and two horses in a charity exhibition (he was on foot), trying out as a professional footballer and, ironically, working as the personal trainer of Diego Maradona, the former Argentine football legend who himself has had more than enough of his own drug problems.

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