Athletics: Ben Johnson returns to Seoul's Olympic Stadium 25 years later
Sprinter Ben Johnson returned on Tuesday to Seoul's Olympic Stadium 25 years after his steroid-assisted 100m final win.
Last Updated: 24/09/13 3:23pm
Johnson's return to Seoul was the final leg of a global tour as standard bearer of the #ChooseTheRightTrack campaign, which calls for new strategies to combat continued drug use in athletics.
"It feels good to be back," Johnson said as he stepped out onto the track where, at 1:30 pm on September 24, 1988, he lined up for a 100m final that would become known as the "dirtiest race in history".
Johnson destroyed a field that included his hated rival Carl Lewis and stormed to victory in a world record time of 9.79sec.
However, three days later he was stripped of his medal, his time and ultimately his career after it was announced that he had tested positive for stanozolol, a banned anabolic steroid. Eventually, six of the eight finalists would be implicated in doping scandals.
The sport has recently been rocked by a string of doping cases, including high-profile athletes such as Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown. From 2015, the sport's world governing body, the IAAF, has announced, it will impose four-year bans on drug offenders.
The campaign is not limited to raising awareness of doping in athletics, but across the sporting spectrum.
Johnson voiced some sympathy for Lance Armstrong, saying the disgraced American cyclist was being singled out, much as he was, in a sport where doping is prevalent.
Asked what he would change if he could go back 25 years, Johnson said there was no point trying to live in the past.
"But I still believe I could have won the Olympic Games without any drugs back then," he added.
