Speed Trap: Inside the Biggest Scandal in Olympic History

Ronald R. Wallingford is a professor in the School of Human Movement at
Laurentian University.

Francis, with help from New York writer Coplon, presents an engaging
account of world-champion sprinter Ben Johnson’s preparation. But the
achievement’s warmth is frozen in the persuasive rationalization used
to justify the sordid use of banned drugs.

Francis justifies his support for steroids after observing athletes in
the sprint world abruptly developing Hollywood-type beach physiques.
“I didn’t need to see a dripping needle to grasp what was going
on,” Francis claims. Yet, Charles Atlas courses thrived for decades by
promising a new physique in 90 days through dynamic exercises.
Francis’s observation is at the crux of the corrosive thinking that
now accuses the innocent as well as the guilty.

Francis is right when he says that many abuse the system, but he is
wrong when he claims that “an athlete could not expect to win in top
international competition without using anabolic steroids.” Coaches
and athletes can reject drugs: such professionals have a wealth of
high-quality technical information available. For example, using
strength-training principles, planning training programs, and peaking
for major events are generously shared by the author.

In quoting Dr. Douglas Clement, director of the Sports Medicine Clinic
at the University of British Columbia, Francis states how delighted he
is that a medical authority agreed that the risks of anabolic-steroid
use are minimal when it is administered properly and in small doses.
What Francis doesn’t mention, from that same meeting, is that Clement
unequivocally stated “anabolic steroid use is illegal and you just
don’t use them in track and field.”

This reader was charmed by Francis’s dedication and determination,
and was left seriously wondering what might have happened had he played
it straight.