Download The Dirtiest Race in History: Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the 1988 Olympic 100M Final AudioBook Free
The 1988 Seoul Olympics played host to what has been detailed by some as the dirtiest competition ever, by others as the greatest. The final of the men's 100 metres at those Olympics is obviously the most infamous in the annals of athletics, and more indelibly etched in to the consciousness of the sport, the Olympics, and a global audience of a huge number, than any athletics event before or since. Ben Johnson's world-record time of 9.79 moments - as thrilling as it was - was the beginning as opposed to the end of the story. Following the competition, Johnson tested positive, information that generated as much - if not more - shockwaves as his quickest ever before run. He was stripped of the subject, with Lewis awarded the silver medal, Linford Christie the metallic and Calvin Smith the bronze. A lot more than two decades on, the story still hadn't ended. In 1999 Lewis was named Sportsman of the Century by the IOC, and Olympian of the Century by Athletics Illustrated. Yet his reputation was destroyed by revelations that he too used performance-enhancing drugs, and tested positive before the Seoul Olympics. Christie also tested positive in Seoul but his explanation, that the suspended substance have been in ginseng tea, was accepted. Smith, now a lecturer in English literature at a Florida school, was the only sportsman in the very best five whose reputation remains unblemished - the others all tested positive at some stage in their careers. Formulated with remarkable new revelations, this book uses see interviews - with Johnson, Lewis and Smith among others - to reconstruct the build-up to the competition, the competition itself, and the fallout when information of Johnson's positive test broke and he was compelled into hiding. It also examines the rivalry of the two favourites entering it, and places the competition in a historical framework, examining its continuing relevance on the sport today, where every new record elicits scepticism.
