Ben Johnson ‘admitted drug use’

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 16

Ben Johnson ‘admitted drug use’

NZPA-REUTER New York NZPA-Reuter The Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, admitted to the Olympic doctor who supervised his urine test after his record 100 metres dash that he used three drugs in the three days before the race, a United States newspaper has reported. Dr Lee In Joon, the coordinating officer of doping control at Olympic stadium in Seoul, would not identify the medications but said one was on the International Olympic Committee’s list of 116 banned medications, the New York paper “Newsday” said. Johnson, who tested positive for anabolic steroid use and was stripped of his gold medal

in one of the biggest scandals in modern Olympic history, made the admission to the doctor during the testing process on Saturday, about 90 minutes after his record 9.79second run, the newspaper said. “It was three kinds of drugs,” Mr Lee said the Canadian sprinter told him. “One was injection. Two were pills.” The 26-year-old runner returned home to Toronto on Tuesday maintaining a public silence after being hounded by throngs of journalists at airport stops along the way. The scandal, which sparked a Canadian Government inquiry, will cost Johnson up to SUSIO million in lost sponsorships.

Johnson’s doctor, Dr George Mario Astaphan, told the Toronto “Globe” and “Mail” in an interview published on Wednesday he was “absolutely sure” Johnson had not taken steroids. “I never gave him any, and he never told me he took any,” the newspaper quoted the physician as saying. Dr Astaphan said he did not believe anybody in Johnson’s entourage had given the sprinter steroids. “Newsday” quoted Mr Lee as saying Johnson displayed defensive behaviour during the testing process at the dope-testing lab in Seoul. “We (in the testing station) can detect when

someone is a little agitated,” Mr Lee was quoted as saying. “When people come in here, you can tell how they’re feeling. Some are tense but most are relaxed. Ben Johnson was very defensive.” In an interview Johnson gave to the “Boston Globe” during his flight home from Seoul, the Jamaican-born sprinter hinted at his innocence. “I got nothing to hide,” the newspaper on Wednesday quoted him as saying. “I don’t want to tell no names, but somebody’s smiling today. If I had taken something, I’d feel real bad. First I was shocked, but after a while I don’t care.” The “Globe” also quoted Johnson as saying:

“I don’t care. It’s not the only thing in life to win a gold medal. I still have my parents. My family still loves me.” Dr Astaphan, in a telephone interview on United States television on Wednesday, denied a report that he injected the athlete with steroids last May. “These charges are totally untrue and unfounded,” Dr Astaphan said. He made the denial when told “Sports Illustrated” magazine was reporting in this week’s issue that he injected Johnson with steroids at the doctor’s office on the Carribbean island of St Kitts to help the athlete recover from a pulled hamstring.