On a sunny May afternoon in 2016, Ben Johnson sat in the hallowed halls of the Old Library at Trinity College and spoke about the dirtiest race in history.
“Sprinters are born, not made,” Johnson said, still believing he was somehow destined to win the 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul Olympics – even if, 48 hours after beating Carl Lewis, lowering the world record to 9.79 seconds, Johnson tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.
The mostly delusional ramblings of the former Canadian sprinter, a guest in Dublin for the Crossing the Line conference, centred on the infamous 100m in Seoul, where six of the eight finalists ended up being implicated in the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
“It bothers me sometimes,” Johnson added, “and I interview myself, and ask did I do the right thing? At the time it was the right thing. But now, I would probably do it again, so to speak. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
That 100m in Seoul has been labelled the dirtiest race in history, but next year’s Enhanced Games – where athletes are allowed and encouraged to use banned performance-enhancing drugs, with hefty cash bonuses for anyone who breaks a world record – promises to take things to another level again.
So much for the natural evolution of h
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