Ok ok, I’m a big fan of Ben Johnson. This is the second entry I did about him this year. The first entry was about updating us on his current life while this entry will tell you why he still thinks the current sprinter like Maurice Greene is crap! Hahaha
By Ben Johnson
MOST people still love Ben Johnson. Regardless of what I did, I am still the best sprinter of all time. Most people loved the entertainment and they know the game. The sport will never be clean. It’s going to be going on until the end of time. And to watch yourself grow up from a young kid, train hard, make progress and win the World Championships and Olympic Games — it’s a great feeling.
Infamy is better than fame. I am still known worldwide. The only sprinter maybe better than Ben Johnson was Bob Hayes (the 1964 Olympic 100 metres champion). If you put Donovan Bailey, Maurice Greene and Tim Montgomery in my race in Seoul, they would finish behind me. It was the greatest race ever run. Every ten-metre segment was perfect, all the way down the track.
I don’t count Montgomery’s world record. The wind speed for Montgomery was two metres per second. I had 1.1 metres per second in Seoul. I could have run 9.72 if I had not shut down at 94 metres. If I’d had a 1.6 or 1.8 behind me and not shut down, I would have run 9.6. If these guys Bailey, Greene, Montgomery were in their prime and I was in mine, they would finish second. Track surfaces now are a lot faster than I was using.
I never remember the date of that race because I have so many things going on in my life. I do some professional coaching and I am working on a television documentary about what happened in Seoul. I have a book going on and I have the Ben Johnson sports line coming out. We are just getting the logo done and the factory has just started making the garments. We are pushing it just before the Olympic Games next year.
I remember the month and the year of the race, but not the exact date. I never wake up and think, ‘today is the anniversary’. History was made I don’t really care about the time and date. What will I be doing on the fifteenth anniversary? I will be here in Toronto and whatever comes up that day I will do.
I just love my life away from track and field. I don’t watch the sport any more. It’s a waste of time. Nobody impresses me. Nobody can run like Ben Johnson. The last track meet I watched was the 1996 Olympic men’s 100 metres final in Atlanta, because I had told Donovan Bailey how to run and how to conduct himself in a mental fashion.
He phoned me and said that Linford Christie and all those guys were doing psychology on him and he could not deal with it. So he called me from Atlanta and I told him a few tricks. I believe about 20 per cent of his victory came from me 20 per cent was the mentality. By what I said to him, he maintained a focus and energy. He thanked me on the phone, but then he came on TV and said Ben Johnson should not get a chance to compete again. He was afraid I was going to take the limelight from him.
After my ban ended in 1990 I was making a great comeback, but I went out in the semi-finals of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics because my federation sabotaged me. They could not live with Ben Johnson making a great comeback. If I had come back and won the Olympic Games, I would have been bigger than the Olympics. They could not live with that, so somebody had to set me up again.
I had been tested in every race I had run in Europe in 1991 and 1992 and everything was clear. I was running fast, running clean. They drug-tested me five times in the Olympic Village in one day because they knew I was in great shape and they didn’t want me to win the Olympics again. It would have been embarrassing for the IAAF, the IOC and maybe my federation.
They drug-tested me the day before the race and I didn’t get to bed until the morning of my first round at 9.30. I got through two rounds but the next day I could not hold on because my body had not recovered from two days earlier. They used up all my energy and it affected my performance. That’s why Linford Christie won the Olympic Games.
Even in athletics also got politics hard at work ah… haiyah…
true, i think applies everywhere
dude…he sounds like someone who is still sore abt being busted for drug use.
and this entry remind me of a certain local athlete who brags abt the ‘what could have been’s. i mean..seriously…running should be about the legs doing the talking man.
he glorifies his past too much. but of cos i still do respect him as a great athlete. but come on, comparing wind speed as an analysis why someone else run faster? wat de hell.
he is sore! coz he knows he’s the only one who got CAUGHT. there were others
hehe, i think i know who you mean. cannot say name kan, some runners do visit my blog
dun forget the sun’s ray or wind direction
well…yeah i do know that there were others. but that’s not the point. point is he did succumb to taking drugs. so what if everyone else was doing it? he should have more faith in his talent without it rite?
i think it’s such a waste. i mean…u train 4 blardy years for a prestigious event and you leave your fate to drug use. my my.
he shld have known the consequences of taking it. he took the risk. so he has no right to be sore about it.
don’t you think?
i guess he feels he needs it to be the best. you can never tell in this sport whos taking and who is not. i guess just focus on yourself is the best, let the assoc handle it
true just have faith in oneself … if all else fails, at least u gave ur best shot and lose to a better prepared athlete
but as u know our assoc is a joke .. abit off topic here, hehe