Home · Sports · Drugs in Sports · Running Off Track: The Ben Johnson Story
Topic spans: 1986 - 1997
Running Off Track: The Ben Johnson Story
In 1976, Benjamin Sinclair Johnson was just a skinny immigrant kid struggling to make his high school track team. A decade later, he was a destroyer of world records, the "world's fastest man." Then it all came crashing down. His positive steroid test at the 1988 Seoul Olympics made headlines around the world, forever changing perceptions of Canadian athletes, the sport of track and field, and Ben Johnson.
14 television clips
8 radio clips
Built for speed
Broadcast Date: May 7, 1987
Ben Johnson is the ultimate running machine. His explosive start is more like a horizontal leap; each stride uses enough energy to light up a city block, and his top speed is 43 kilometres per hour. Training four hours a day for 11 years doesn't hurt, either. In 1987, the budding track star is starting to get noticed. In this clip, scientists, coaches and computers try to comprehend the physics of a man who can outrun every person on the planet.Built for speed
• Ben Johnson moved to Canada from Jamaica at age 14. He was a gangly kid with a stutter and a strong accent. Coach Charlie Francis, who began working with Johnson when he was 15, described him as "a skinny, 93-pound runt."• According to Francis, Johnson was a poor runner when he first started training. Francis says once a particularly slow kid quit the team, citing the reason, "even Ben is beating me."
• Ben Johnson's first major international race was the 100-metre sprint in the 1983 world championships. He was eliminated in the semifinals.
• In 1984, at age 19, Ben Johnson raced for Canada at the Los Angeles Olympics, finishing third behind American sprinter Carl Lewis. He won another bronze medal on the 4x100m relay team.
• In 1986 Johnson beat world champion Lewis at the Goodwill Games in Moscow. Johnson's time of 9.95 seconds was the fastest ever recorded at sea level. (The world record was Calvin Smith's 9.93, set at altitude in Colorado. The thin air at high elevations is seen as an asset for explosive athletic events such as sprinting and jumping, though the opposite holds true for endurance events.)
• In 1986 Ben Johnson was selected as the Canadian Press male athlete of the year (the Lionel Conacher award) and Canada's outstanding athlete (the Lou Marsh Trophy).
• According to Johnson, a Jamaican soothsayer told him at age 12 that he would one day travel the world and become famous.
Built for speed
Medium: Television
Program: The Fifth Estate
Broadcast Date: May 7, 1987
Guest(s): Charlie Francis, Jeff Gowan, Ben Johnson, Gordon Robertson
Reporter: Robert McKeown
Duration: 6:03
Race footage: International Association of Athletics Federations.
Last updated:
Aug. 20, 2009
Activez le Javascript sur votre navigateur...
22 clips in this topic . page
Topic
From Melbourne to Montreal, Munich to Mexico City, the CBC has roamed the planet to beam Olympic history into Canadian living rooms. We take a look back and, through the eyes of CBC correspondents, experience...
Topic
Alex Baumann was best, stalwart Sylvie Frechette showed grace and Donovan Bailey left his rivals in the dust. From 1984 to 2000, CBC Radio and Television followed Canadian athletes chasing Olympic gold. They...
Built for speed.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Aug. 20, 2009.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]