Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

This whole 100m world record issue is such a joke to me. People are really naive as far as who the best sprinter ever is. 9.79 back in the 80's, no mondo surface, spikes a lot more primitave than those of today, easing up for the last 15m, arm up, looking in Carl Lewis face - Ben Johnson. It wouldn't be stupid to say that almost all (if not all) the sprinters today running under 10.00 are on something, but Ben got caught, and he is slandered for it and isn't given the respect he deserves. THE BEST SPRINTER EVER, hands down.

Re: Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

Canadjian eh?

Re: Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

"It wouldn't be stupid to say that almost all (if not all) the sprinters today running under 10.00 are on something"

If you 'know' something Mr. Knowledgable, please produce it. Otherwise, what you say is, of course, worthless garbage.

Re: Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

>but Ben got caught, and he is slandered for it and isn't given the respect he deserves.

Wait a second. He doesn't deserve to be slandered? HE GOT CAUGHT AND ADMITTED DRUG USE, and then, GOT CAUGHT A SECOND TIME DURING HIS BALLYHOOED COMEBACK. He deserves no respect.

Re: Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

yeah whatever. So am I.

Re: Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

Hey idiots, is Ben the only sprinter to get caught? Have you forgotten Dennis Mitchell, Linford Christie, Merlene Ottey, and let's not forget the track icon, Carl Lewis. Many people have been caught for drugs, but haven't taken the heat that Ben has. These people that got caught, are they the only sprinters who have ever used drugs? You guys must be idiots. If it wasn't for some silly messups, they wouldn't have been caught, and many of the sprinters today aren't getting caught. He's the best sprinter ever.

Re: Ben Johnson is the best Sprinter the world has ever seen

>Hey idiots, is Ben the only sprinter to get
>caught?
Perhaps one of the resident T&FN experts contributing to this board could review how many in that 88 final were subsequently tainted for one reason or another.

Very good point

Exactly. Out of that race alone, 4 out of the 8 runners competing later got caught for a banned substance; Ben Johnson, Desai Williams, Linford Christie, Carl Lewis.

Re: Very good point

As far as I am concern the times currently being posted are non-drug times. I hope they continue to keep it real. I think Ben is the fastest, drug or no drug. I beleive most sprinters are on drugs.

[JRM]

Re: Very good point

Correction: 5 of the 8. You forgot Dennis Mitchell. That ratio makes it the majority...

Re: Very good point

How the heck did I forget Dennis Mitchell?

Re: Very good point

By your own admission Ben was on drugs, so therefore shouldn't this topic be correctly entitled "Johnson is the best druggie sprinter ever"? I'll agree to that. But since he was a cheat, he is disqualified from consideration as the best sprinter ever. So unless every other sprinter on the planet is a druggie, he's not the best. I, for one, ran 11.5 in high school, completely clean. So I guess that makes me the 'best sprinter ever.'

What?

Look, you last point was stupid, OK. 11.5 sucks, and if you were a woman, you wouldn't be near the best sprinter ever, let's just get that straight. Do you think that sprinters who use drugs just pop a pill and become fast? YOu have no clue. Sprinters still have to do all the training, all the preparations, all the technical work to become great. Ben was an amazing technician, his running form was near perfect, and his start has and will never be duplicated. You say that you don't believe sprinters today use drugs, but you have no solid proof other than your belief.

Re: What?

"You say that you don't believe sprinters today use drugs, but you have no solid proof other than your belief."

As opposed to your solid proof that most of them are using drugs?

Re: Very good point

Johnson was no dirtier than any other sprinter the last 20 years or so - possibly even much longer ago. Individuals respond differently to drugs, so it's possible he derived more benefit from what he used, and it's also possible his opponents derived the same or even more benefits. He was ahead of his time, no pun intended, and his coach (Francis) had very interesting ideas and training techniques that were ahead of their time. Johnson was better than his contemporaries, including Lewis.