The Summer Olympic - 127 Years Of Scandal And Counting, Part 3
From that infamous men's 100 metres to the Badminton fiasco of London 2012.
1988: The Dirtiest Race In History
Of course, anyone with a passing interest in sport knows that Canada’s Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100m gold in Seoul after, as Clive James remarked, traces of urine were found in his anabolic steroids. What’s less widely acknowledged is that, of the eight participants in the race, only America’s Calvin Smith and Brazil’s Robson Da Silva completed their careers without failing a drugs test. Everyone else, including Johnson’s fellow countryman Desai Williams, Britain’s Linford Christie and eventual winner and nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis would walk away from the sport with an asterisk beside their name.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to As Luck Would Have It to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.