The sport that ended his career is still corrupt. This is according to former Olympian Ben Johnson when he told the BBC during an interview. It was already more than 2 decades after the first controversial doping case in athletics happened but the former word title holder insist that there was no improvement in the sports. Ben Johnson was stripped off his 100m gold medal after he was tested positive for steroid stanozolol in Seoul Olympics.

It was the hardest thing to accept for Johnson because he believes that he was singled out in that competition. He was not the only one taking performance enhancing drugs. “I don’t watch track and field that much because it’s all corrupted. I was the scapegoat,” he told BBC. His 9.83 secs was removed from the record and the anti-doping authorities imposed a 4 year ban on him. “I was not protected and did not get the same treatment as everyone else,” said Johnson.

Johnson said that everybody is doing it. If he will not use steroids, he will not be able to get a fair chance of winning. “I look back and I made some mistakes. I was using steroids, but everyone was in the same level playing field. The person who is clean in this business is the person who doesn’t make it,” said Johnson. His trainer, who died recently also share the same sentiment. During an inquiry initiated by the Canadian government, trainer and coach Charlie Francis said that he gave steroids to his athletes to make the competition a level playing field. Coach Francis was also banned in athletics but his claims supported the allegation of Ben Johnson.

In May, Johnson said in an interview that he was a victim of sabotage. That there were some people who intentionally destroyed his reputation and career. He even mentioned that someone was helping and providing him detailed information about the incident in Seoul. Johnson reiterated that statement in his latest interview. “I was the victim of sabotage. Sure I took steroids but just to train, not to run fast. It doesn’t enable me to run faster,” said the former Olympian.

The Jamaican born athlete believes that the book will help clear his name. “I enjoy my life whichever way it comes, it doesn’t matter. My name will be cleared once this book comes out. If you say I’m the biggest cheat, who do you think you are? You can’t judge me. You are not the person to judge me,” said Jonhson. This will add to the increasing number of steroid related books published by many professional athletes involved in the use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. Though most of them are intended to protect their names but some became an important source of information just like the steroid books of Jose Canseco which detailed the rampant use of steroids in major league baseball.

Johnson added that the book will be a good one. “This book will set my soul free. There is no bad news in this book. It’s a good book.” The book entitled “Seoul to Soul” is expected to be released in September.

Johnson was not alone in his dilemma of being tagged as a steroid cheat. Actually there is a long list of professional track and field athletes who also faced the same consequences. Olympian Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Dwain Chambers, Crystal Cox and many others were sanctioned for using steroids and their glorious career ended in pain.

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