downfall of Ben Johnson
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The downfall of Ben Johnson began not in Seoul, nor at the Los Angeles Olympics four years earlier. At that time he got used to the sight of Carl Lewis's back, but situation started changing after a quiet meeting with Charlie Francis, his coach, in Toronto in September 1981.
It was three months before his 20th birthday that Francis brought up the subject of steroids. He informed Johnson that steroids represented 1 percent of performance, or the equivalent of one meter in the 100 meters, and he suggested that it was time for Johnson to get touch with his doctor. And it was a few days later that Johnson phoned Francis. He had made up his mind, and said yes, he wanted that extra meter.
For Ben Johnson, he could have said no, but it is not that easy, and he is not sophisticated enough. Ben wasn't a university graduate and he didn't have the intellectual equipment to deal with it. When the coach told him that 'everybody does it', he was easily convinced. And he was just a pawn in a man's desire for success...