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THE SEOUL OLYMPICS

THE SEOUL OLYMPICS; Johnson

Loses Gold to Lewis After Drug Test
By Michael Janofsky, Special To the New York Times

Sept. 27, 1988

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Ben Johnson of Canada, who won the Olympic 100-meter final

Saturday in the world-record time of 9.79 seconds, was stripped of
his gold medal and today was disqualified from the Games after
drug tests showed he had used an anabolic steroid.

The International Olympic Committee announced the test results

this morning, and later in the morning, the International Amateur
Athletic Federation, the world governing body for track and field,
banned Johnson from competition for two years, the maximum
penalty. The Canadian Government banned him for life from
receiving a monthly payment he had been receiving from it.

The I.A.A.F. also said that Carl Lewis, who set an American record
of 9.92 seconds when he finished second Saturday, would be
elevated to the winner's position. Linford Christie of Britain will
now get the silver medal, and Calvin Smith of the United States will
receive the bronze.

Johnson's positive test is likely to have wide and profound, but

quite different, implications for him and for the Olympics.

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James Worrall, an I.O.C. member in Canada, said that Johnson

''has been killed'' as an athlete, and that the sprinter's once-
favored status as a hero to many sports fans in Canada, in Jamaica,
where he was born, and around the world will now be tarnished.

For the Olympics, however, the finding served as a symbolic Editors’ Picks

victory over those who would cheat to win.

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''This is a disaster for Ben, a disaster for the Games, and a disaster
for track and field,'' said Richard Pound, an I.O.C. vice president
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and a Canadian. ''But let's turn this around to make the slate clean TikTok

and show the world that we do mean business. We are prepared to

act, not just to pick out a low-profile athlete in a low-profile sport. If
it happens to the best, the same thing will happen.''

Worrall said: ''If this results in telling every young aspiring

athlete, no matter what the sport, that drug-taking just doesn't pay,
then perhaps we have achieved something.''

Two tests showed that the 26-year-old Johnson had used a

substance called stanozolol, a water-based steroid structurally
similar to the male hormone testosterone. Johnson was notified of
the test results sometime Monday morning, after which he met
with I.O.C. officials and representatives of the Canadian Olympic
Association. After the meeting, at about 10:30 Monday night, he
surrendered his gold medal.

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Pound, who attended the meeting, described Johnson as being

stunned and said Johnson denied he had used steroids. 'Like a
Trapped Animal'

''He sat there looking like a trapped animal,'' Pound said. ''He had
no idea what was going on all around him. He said he didn't do
anything wrong and he hadn't taken anything. Sitting there, he was
nervous and he could hardly speak.''

Charlie Francis, Johnson's coach, also attended the meeting, and

Pound described him as being as ''equally shocked'' as Johnson.

Neither Johnson nor Francis was available for comment.

According to some reports, they had left Seoul on a flight to New
York.

Substances like stanozolol, one of more than 100 substances

banned by the I.O.C., are taken by athletes to increase muscle
mass, which in turn enhances their performance. In the Olympics,
and most other international and national events, medal winners
and other finishers at random are required to give a urine sample
after their events.

If an initial test is positive, the I.O.C. medical commission and the

athlete's national Olympic committee are notified and a second test
is done. If it is also positive, the athlete and his coach are told.

Pound, Worrall and others who know Johnson well held out for the
possibility that in some way, Johnson had been manipulated, that
he could have been given the steroid without his knowledge or that
of his coach, Francis.

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In his defense to the Canadian Olympic officials, Johnson and

Francis said that Johnson might have been given the substance in
a drink sometime before or after the 100-meter final.

Larry Heidebrecht, Johnson's manager, said the positive test was

''a mistake or sabotage.'' He said that Johnson had been given a
bottle containing a sports drink at the stadium. Johnson took the
bottle back to his living quarters, and that night found what
Heidebrecht called ''a yellow gooey substance'' on the bottom.

Heidebrecht said that Johnson could recall neither when he might

have drunk from the bottle nor who gave it to him. Breach of
Security

In its deliberations over the I.O.C. Medical Commission

recommendation that the test result be accepted, Pound argued on
Johnson's behalf that such a scenario could have occurred, and that
there might have been a breach of security around the drug-testing
operation at the stadium.

But with no hard evidence to substantiate either possibility, the

executive board rejected that position, and Pound acknowledged
that the chemical analysis of the urine sample had indicated a
''chronic suppression of his adrenal functions.'' That would
indicate, he said, that Johnson had been using the steroid for a
period of time.

''It was not one offense of ingestion,'' Pound said.

Prince Alexandre de Merode, the chief of the I.O.C. Medical

Commission, said I.O.C. doctors said the test results ''excluded all
possibility'' that the drug could have been administered after the
competition and before the test.

In the face of the chemical analysis and their familiarity with

Johnson as an athlete and a person, both Pound and Worrall felt
that Johnson was an innocent victim of someone.

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''Obviously, people behind him, medical people, are responsible,''

Worrall said. ''Ben is a lad who will follow instructions. If he is told
that something is good, he will believe it. The whole thing points up
the tragedy of the whole system endemic in international sports.''

Pound called Johnson ''a pawn in this, the host organization for the
substance.''

The test results would seem to vindicate Lewis, who was criticized
last year for saying, after Johnson had defeated him at the world
track and field championships in Rome, in the world record time of
9.83 seconds, that some ''champions in this meet'' had used
performance-enhancing drugs.

Lewis did not mention Johnson by name, but the reference to

Johnson was unmistakable. Lewis Holds to Charge

Johnson, who had finished third to Lewis in the Los Angeles

Olympics in 1984, had dismissed Lewis's remarks, accusing him of
being a poor loser. But in subsequent interviews, Lewis held to his
claim.

Today, when informed of developments, Lewis said, ''If there is an

incident, I am deeply sorry.'' He declined further comment.

''My obvious reaction to this is one of a degree of total

devastation,'' said Worrall. ''If you were looking for an example of
the absolute destructive potential of drug taking, this is it.''

Worrall then referred to the speech given by Juan Antonio

Samaranch, the I.O.C. president, that opened the I.O.C. meetings
preceeding the Games.

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''He said doping equals death,'' Worrall said. ''Ben Johnson has just
been killed as an athlete, and probably his complete life has been
ruined.''

With Johnson now deposed as champion, Lewis is in a position to

win gold medals in the same four events that he won in Los
Angeles in 1984. On Monday, he won the long-jump competition.
Finals in his other two events, the 200 meters and the 400-meter
relay, are scheduled for later in the week.

At Los Angeles in 1984, 12 athletes tested positive for drug use.

Through the first 10 days of competition here, seven athletes have
tested positive, including the two Bulgarians who won gold medals
in weight lifting.

In an interview Monday, Samaranch said that the ''only problem''

of the Seoul Games had been one of drug use by athletes. He
referred to the speeches he had given to open the Calgary Games
last winter and these Games. In those speeches, he castigated
those athletes who would use drugs and the doctors who would
help them find new drugs to use.

''We are showing that the system works,'' Samaranch said,

alluding to the sophisticated testing laboratories, in which 4,000
drugs or more can be detected. ''We are showing that my words
are not only words, they are facts. We are winning the battle
against doping.'' MOSES SEES POSITIVE EFFECTS

SEOUL, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 27 (Special to The New York

Times) - Several American track and field stars said the
disqualification of Ben Johnson could result in eliminating drug
problems from track and field.

That feeling was shared by Edwin Moses, the 400-meter hurdler,

and Florence Griffith Joyner, the gold medalist in the women's 100-
meter dash.

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''I thought for years something like this would happen,'' said
Moses, who is a member of the International Olympic Committee's
Athletes Commission, which has taken a strong stand against
drugs in sports.

He added that athletes would start to recognize the need that drug
testing, limited now to major competitions, should also be
conducted during training.

Griffith Joyner said the action against Johnson was good because it
showed that testing worked.

''Some athletes feel they have to use drugs,'' she said. ''That's the
sad part about it. I don't think anyone has to use drugs to be great.
You have to know you're good and believe in yourself.''

A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 27, 1988, Section A, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline:
THE SEOUL OLYMPICS; Johnson Loses Gold to Lewis After Drug Test. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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