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High tech equipment targets cheaters in Seoul
Broadcast Date: Sept. 7, 1988
In three weeks, Seoul, South Korea, will host 8,391 athletes from 159 nations. Some of them will use drugs to cheat. Catching them is the job of Jong-Sai Park, technical director of Seoul's doping control centre. In this clip he explains how high technology will keep the games "safe and competitive." It is these machines that will soon prove Ben Johnson's undoing.High tech equipment targets cheaters in Seoul
• Ten athletes, including Ben Johnson, were disqualified for drug use at the Seoul Olympics.• Although Ben Johnson made the headlines, some of his famous competitors at Seoul also had close calls with drug testing.
• Linford Christie of the United Kingdom, who was moved up to the silver medal, had traces of the stimulant pseudoephedrine in his post-race sample. He claimed it must have come from ginseng tea. Christie was allowed to keep his medal in an 11-10 International Olympic Committee medical commission vote that decided to give him "the benefit of the doubt."
• Documents released in 2003 by former U.S. anti-doping head Dr. Wade Exum suggested Carl Lewis was caught using three banned stimulants in 1988 just prior to the Olympics. Lewis claimed inadvertent use, and his 12-week suspension was overturned on appeal by the United States Olympic Committee. They hid the results and allowed him to compete in Seoul. Lewis has nine Olympic gold medals, including the one stripped from Ben Johnson.
• The Ben Johnson fiasco notwithstanding, the Seoul Olympics were relatively free of scandal, aside from a boxing tournament marred by incompetent or corrupt judging.
• Seoul also marked the first time in 26 years that the Summer Games were not tarnished by widespread boycotts. Only North Korea (denied the chance to co-host the games), Cuba and Ethiopia sat out.
High tech equipment targets cheaters in Seoul
Medium: Television
Program: CBC Television News
Broadcast Date: Sept. 7, 1988
Guest(s): Kim Carlisle, Larry Cattran, Jong-Sai Park
Duration: 3:24
Last updated:
Aug. 13, 2004
Television
2:13
Ben Johnson tests positive for anabolic steroids and is stripped of his medal.
Television
7:07
The era of amateur drug testing begins at the 1983 Pan Am Games, and Canadians are among the first to be busted.
High tech equipment targets cheaters in Seoul.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Aug. 13, 2004.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]