I’m a track athlete, so I am going to share one related to the olympics. Namely the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
The story behind the mens 100m dash is one of drama, intrigue, tragedy, and the downfall of a quiet hero.
The fastest men on the planet have been training 4 years to run a race that is over in less than 11 seconds. They are lean and strong. It doesn't take a pair of eagle eyes to notice that sprinters have evolved strangely in this particular olympic games. One in particular is very noticeable. Tell me if you can see it.
Did you catch it? Let me add one more and tell me if you can see it.
Maybe you saw it that time. That Canadian is fucking jacked. And he seems to have reduced the 7th fastest men in the world to a bunch of uncoordinated middle schoolers.
Have you ever cheated at something and won? Like destroyed your opponents in an unrealistic way? Maybe when you stole a ton of money in monopoly or used cheat codes in a video game. Just utterly demolished someone in something you shouldn't have. People start to ask questions after that, and you might feel stupid or a little shame. Clearly Mr. Johnson used steroids. Unsportsman like for sure. But if a picture speaks a thousand words, we have a lot more to cover than the obvious about Ben Johnson's supplements.
Pictured: not an athlete
The man above was Carl Lewis’s track coach. There is strong evidence him and Carl Lewis had drugs put into Ben Johnsons drink so his own supplements would stay in his system longer and show up on a drug test. Quick fact about steroids: by the time the olympics or super bowl roll around, the drugs are long out of an athletes system. Steroids and HGH are ONLY for training. So testing an athlete right before a competition is like harvesting a wheat field in December.
Fun Fact about these 8 men. 7/8 of them tested positive for performance enhancing drug use at some point in their career. The one who didn't was older and a former world champion, and record holder. Which means every one of the younger generation up and coming sprinters was accustomed to drug use. Including Carl who is so confusedly looking at Ben in this picture. Ben just cheated better. Look at that man. Look at all of them. They all cheated, Carl even went so far as to spike his drink to get him caught. But they almost all cheated. Some cheat better than others. Ben didn't just use cheat codes, they all did, he just used a lot more of them. Carl almost definitely did too, and then spiked his drink and spear headed the attack to get him nailed to a cross.
Johnson cheated so well he destroyed all the other cheaters and became the face of stopping cheating. Another fun fact, steroids aren't an end all solution. You still need to train, as a matter of fact you need to train harder when using them. Imagine the hardest workout of your life. A normal person needs a week or so to recover. Someone on steroids needs a few hours to recover. So Ben took those injections to hit his max and have the hardest training session of most peoples lives, multiple times a week. 80% of olympians in those games came back with a positive tests. Johnson’s insane performance put it in the spotlight.
He still trained harder than everyone else, and he is still more naturally gifted. The only one who never got caught with anything was Calvin Smith in lane 5. Former world record holder just 5 years before that race. At least Ben was a nice guy and owned up to it when he cheated. Carl won multiple gold medals and went on to become the richest, and douchiest, track athlete ever. He is still remembered as one of the greatest athletes of the century, while Ben is crucified. They both cheated. No justice in sports.
All sports are riddled with sketchy things. If you don't take it you won't make it. Just remember if you cheat make sure everyone else is as well. And don't do it too well.
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