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Ben Johnson still on the podium for Olympic infamy
A quarter century on, Ben Johnson is still coated in the exact opposite of Teflon.
The Canadian sprinter was not the first in international sport to fail a drug test and was far from the last, yet Johnson's disgrace is still a handy first point of reference when the British tabloids rhyme off Olympians who went off course. While most of Canada's track team fly under the radar nowadays, happy to just make a final, Big Ben still burns bright for the Daily Mail. This ran on the same day a Bulgarian weightlifter named Hysen Pulaku was turfed for testing positive for, you guessed it, stanozolol:
In 1988, he won the 100m in Seoul in a world record time of 9.79 seconds.
But after testing positive for the banned steroid stanozolol he was stripped of his medal, the world record and banned from competing for two years.
After returning to athletics, he tested positive again in 1993 and was banned for life.
Johnson has since made increasingly desperate attempts to cash in on his notoriety.
He was appointed coach for a football team run by the son of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi and was once mugged by gypsies in Rome who stole $5,000 from him.
He also worked as a fitness coach to Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, has tried to launch a clothing line, made a TV advert for a natural energy supplement and has written a self-published autobiography in which he claimed to have been an Egyptian pharaoh in a previous life. (Daily Mail)
Canadians have mostly turned the page on the Johnson scandal — Donovan Bailey winning the men's 100-metre dash in Atlanta eight years ago took care of that — and Johnson has mostly faded into obscurity. He is kind of like the Pete Rose of Canadian sport. He was made into a false idol, was cast out and yet had to find a way to keep living his life. He's likely way too self-fixated to ever ask for forgiveness, so it's never going to extended.
[Memorable Moment: Ben Johnson's road from glory to disgrace]
It probably just goes to show that in 1988, sports fans hadn't reconciled themselves to the reality of doping. On Saturday, the Olympic men's road race was won by Kazakhstan's Alexandr Vinkourov, who was once banned for blood doping. Chances are, a medallist from London 2012 might end up giving back her/his prize, since the IOC's doping control people keep samples for years after the fact until they can develop tests for the newest designer drugs. And the pinched athlete won't be reminded of it until the end of days.
Only Ben Johnson's dirty deed remains so frozen in time. Now you know why people think the media never lets anything go.
.Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.
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