Cold Open

It’s September 24th, 1988, at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.

On the track, 27-year-old American athlete Carl Lewis bounces up and down, warming up for the flagship event of the Olympic Games: the final of the men’s 100-meters.

Four years ago, Carl won gold in this event at the Los Angeles Olympics. But since then, a new rival has emerged. Canadian Ben Johnson is the current world champion and world record holder, and most analysts think that he’s the only athlete capable of taking the Olympic title from Carl. And now, it’s all down to the result of this one race.

The announcer calls for quiet and the runners take their positions. Carl puts his feet in the starting blocks, sets himself, and waits for the pistol shot that will begin the race.

Carl explodes out of the blocks… pumping his legs to try to reach top speed as quickly as possible. But out of the corner of his eye, he can see that Ben Johnson is already a stride ahead. Carl keeps running with as much effort as he can muster, but the gap only increases. With ten meters to go, Ben lifts his right arm and points to the sky, signaling that he is number one.

Carl crosses the finish line just behind him. He could do no more, but his best is only good enough for second place. With a new world record time of 9.79 seconds, it’s Ben Johnson who’s the new Olympic champion.

Later that day, Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson will stand side by side on the podium. Carl’s face will be a picture of disappointment as he’s handed a silver medal. Ben will stand proud as he’s awarded the gold. But just three days later, the sporting world will be thrown into a state of turmoil when Ben Johnson is forced to return the Olympic gold medal he won over Carl Lewis on September 24th, 1988.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 24th, 1988: Ben Johnson’s Olympic Gold.

Act One: Clean

It’s August 4th, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, four years before the Olympic Games in Seoul.

50-year-old scientist Dr. Robert Voy hunches over a gas chromatograph attached to a computer. He checks that the equipment is set up correctly before typing in a command on the keyboard. The chromatograph fires to life, and Robert turns away to prepare yet another urine sample. While the 1984 Olympic Games are taking place on the other side of Los Angeles, Robert is pulling long shifts in his laboratory, carrying out tests on urine samples provided by athletes. It’s Robert's job to find out whether any of the competitors have been cheating.

For as long as organized sport has existed, athletes have sought to gain an advantage over their rivals. Some have taken infusions and medications including opiates to improve their stamina, while competitors in other events have used stimulants to ensure they perform their best. But over the past few decades, there’s been an explosion in the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Thanks to the propaganda boost associated with sporting success, athletes in Communist Eastern Europe and the USSR have been pressured to take testosterone and anabolic steroids to develop bigger, and more powerful muscles. Meanwhile, in countries like the USA, there are lucrative endorsement deals and sponsorships at stake for the top athletes. The desire to earn more money has pressured some athletes to take drugs that’ll improve their performance. And now, the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, is battling to keep a level playing field in the world’s flagship festival of sport: the Olympics.

As Robert takes another test tube from a rack, a beep on his computer catches his attention. The screen shows a graph that indicates the presence of nitrogen or phosphorus. Those two elements are signs that performance-enhancing drugs may be in the urine sample currently being tested. But to make sure, Robert runs the sample through a mass spectrometer. And the results from that test are clear: the athlete who provided this sample has taken a banned substance.

Robert quickly notifies the IOC of the positive test, and the Swedish weightlifter who provided the sample is disqualified from the Olympics. His result is voided, and he’s stripped of the silver medal he won just a few days ago.

Although Robert has caught a drug cheat, he isn’t pleased. He views every positive test with disappointment. Still, he's surprised by how few other athletes have tested positive. He knows drug use in sport is rife. But somehow athletes that Robert is certain have taken performance-enhancing drugs are providing clean samples.

So, when the Olympic Games comes to an end, Robert decides to dig deeper into the use of these drugs—and he soon becomes convinced that the entire testing system is flawed.

Some competitors are exploiting a loophole by taking human growth hormones. These help athletes build muscle and recover faster from workouts, but they’re impossible to detect in a laboratory, so they aren’t officially a banned substance. As a result, a shadowy trade has developed. Athletes and coaches use dubious medical practitioners who will prescribe the hormones with few questions asked in return for large sums of money.

Other athletes are prepared to gamble and use banned drugs, but they mask their illegal activity by taking additional substances to flush the drugs out of their system. Robert often finds that the urine samples he’s taken to test are clear as water—a frustrating sign that the athlete may be taking performance-enhancing drugs, but have used means to flush them out, and Robert has no way of proving it.

And even when Robert does detect traces of banned drugs, he often finds the response from sporting authorities disappointing. A positive test does not necessarily lead to disqualification - instead many sports want to hide the issue under the rug to avoid negative headlines. And even sometimes, samples that have tested positive then mysteriously go missing. On other occasions, athletes win appeals against the results with scarcely believable explanations of how the banned substances ended up in their samples.

Despite the frustration, though, doctors like Robert will continue their crusade to clean up sports and rid it of cheating. But they’ll be swimming against the tide until rumors emerge that incriminate the most famous athletes in the world. Finally, the media will begin to shine a spotlight on the practice, and the scandal will become global news after performance-enhancing drugs mar the reputation of the flagship event in men’s track and field: the 100-meter sprint.

Act Two: Lewis Vs Johnson

It’s August 30th, 1987, in an athletics stadium in Rome, Italy, a year before the 1988 Olympic Games.

American athlete Carl Lewis strains every muscle as he dips over the finish line in the final of the 100 meters at the World Athletics Championship. As he slows down, Carl glances over at the scoreboard—and he scarcely believes what he sees. Carl’s just run his fastest-ever race, matching the world record of 9.93 seconds. But it’s still not good enough to win. Instead, 25-year-old Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson has just obliterated the field by running in 9.83 seconds, smashing the world record by a tenth of a second.

Three years ago though, Ben Johnson was only fast enough to win the bronze medal in the 100 meters at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Since then, he’s shown a staggering improvement in his performance. Ben was always an explosive sprinter who was quick out of the blocks, but he tended to fade in the second half of race. That changed after Ben began working with coach Charlie Francis. He bulked up to improve his stamina. His muscles became bigger, and his body tighter. And it all seemed to pay off. One year after the Los Angeles Olympics, Ben finally outran Carl Lewis after eight consecutive losses. Now, Ben has beaten Carl again at the World Championships.

As the crowd chants Ben’s name and Ben waves back, Carl chases after him. He grabs Ben’s hand, trying to say a few words. But Ben shakes him off. He thinks Carl is being a sore loser and wants nothing to do with him. So, as Ben celebrates, Carl is left to mutter to himself as he walks off the track, and away from the glare of the cameras.

Ben was right. Carl is a bad loser. He is sure that Ben made a false start in the race. But he also suspects that there’s more to Ben’s win than leaving the blocks a fraction of a second early. When they compete together at athletics meetings, Carl has spotted a yellow tint to Ben’s eyes—an indicator that he’s been taking steroids.

Carl’s frustration spills over into the media. When he’s interviewed on television after the World Championships, Carl is questioned about doping in sports. He admits that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is common in sprinting. And though Carl doesn’t name names, he heavily implies that Ben Johnson’s meteoric rise has been aided by illegal substances. The claim is backed by another American sprinter Calvin Smith, the previous owner of the 100 meters world record. Both Carl and Calvin profess to be clean, and they complain they’re competing against rivals who have an unfair advantage.

And a few months later, Carl is notified of a positive drug test. But it’s not Ben Johnson who’s been caught. It’s Carl himself. Small amounts of stimulants have been found in a urine sample he provided after the US Olympic Trials. The consequences of the positive test are potentially dire. Carl faces a lengthy ban and the prospect of missing the Olympic Games. So, he launches a campaign to clear his name, claiming that the banned substances ended up in his body after taking an over-the-counter medication. The officials accept his reasoning, the ruling is overturned, Carl is cleared, and after weeks of worry, Carl is confirmed as a member of the American track team for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

But shortly before his planned departure for South Korea, Carl’s preparations are interrupted by the death of his father. At the funeral, Carl takes one of the Olympic gold medals he won in Los Angeles and places it in his father’s open coffin. Carl then bends close to his father’s ear and promises he’ll win another in Seoul to replace it. But Carl doesn’t win the medal he wants more than any other. On September 24th, 1988, he finishes second to rival Ben Johnson in the 100-meters.

And moments after the end of the race, Carl again chases Ben down the track. And just like in Rome, Carl wants to say something to the man who’s just beaten him. This time Ben turns his back on Carl. Carl then forcefully grabs Ben’s hand and shakes it in congratulations, but the ill-feeling between the two men is evident to all who witness it.

Carl will spend the next three days fuming about the gold medal that he's sure has been stolen from him. Meanwhile, the press will hail Ben Johnson as the fastest man alive and one of the greatest athletes of all time. But soon, news will emerge that will completely upend the narrative and grant Carl Lewis the Olympic gold medal he promised his father.

Act Three: Dirty

It’s the early hours of the morning on September 27th, 1988, at the Olympic Village in Seoul, South Korea, three days after Ben Johnson’s victory in the 100-meter final.

Carl Lewis, the athlete who came second, stirs from sleep as the phone beside his bed rings. He groans as he sees the time on the clock. Although the 100 meters is over, Carl still has other events to compete in, and he needs his rest. But the American Olympic official on the other end of the line has woken Carl to deliver some astounding news: Ben Johnson has failed a drug test.

Carl is speechless. For the last three days, he’s replayed the 100-meter final over and over in his head. He doesn’t think there’s anything he could have done differently to beat Ben. But now, Carl has been handed the victory off the track.

The International Olympic Committee quickly organizes a press conference where the news is confirmed. Ben Johnson is disqualified and removed from the results. He’s ordered to return his gold medal, and second-placed finisher, Carl Lewis is now the new Olympic champion.

Ben Johnson doesn’t just lose his gold medal though. He’s also banned from competing for three years. Ben and his coach claim that he was the victim of a conspiracy, that his drink was spiked. But when this doesn’t work, athlete and coach turn on each other. Ben claims that it was his coach that supplied the steroids and that he didn’t understand what he was taking. Only when another Canadian athlete turns whistleblower does Ben finally admit his role in the affair. So as well as the Olympic gold medal, he’s stripped of the title he won at the World Championships in Rome, and his record-breaking runs are struck from the history books.

But Ben Johnson will also claim that he’s been scapegoated in an era in which drug-taking was all too common. In total, six of the eight athletes who ran in the 100-meter final at the Seoul Olympics will later be embroiled in doping scandals—and Carl Lewis will be among them. In 2003, an American doctor will publicly reveal Carl’s failed drug test after the US Olympic Trials in 1988. He’ll allege that officials kept the positive test quiet so Carl could compete in Seoul. In response, Ben Johnson will call for the IOC to strip Carl of his medals in the same way Ben lost his, but his request will be denied and Carl will later be exonerated once again.

In the years since the Seoul Olympics, sporting authorities have upped their efforts to identify drug use. Athletes are now tested out of competition, and more rigorous procedures have been developed to catch those who are prepared to gain an unfair advantage. It’s harder than ever for athletes to cheat the system. And although many still fall foul of the regulations, the men’s 100-meter final that was dubbed “the dirtiest race in history” remains athletics’ most high-profile scandal, after Ben Johnson cheated his way to a gold medal on September 24th, 1988.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 25th, 1983. Thirty-eight members of the Irish Republican Army pull off the UK’s biggest prison escape.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.