Introduction to Poetry

bullet1 The Title and the World Outside the Poem

bullet2 Background

bullet3 Ben Johnson - Biography

BEN JOHNSON - Biography

Born Dec. 30, 1961- Sprinter.

Until he was disgraced and stripped of his Olympic gold medal for illegal drug use, the fastest man on earth had been the Jamaican-born Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. Once described by his trainer, Charlie Francis, as "the Rodney Dangerfield of track and field," Johnson struggled for years to win the respect of the media, the sports establishment, and the sprinter who was his arch rival, the flamboyant American track superstar Carl Lewis.

After winning four gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympic games, Lewis had been consistently beaten by Johnson, a quiet, withdrawn young man who resented Lewis's exalted status as the crown prince of track and field. At a world championship meet in Rome in the summer of 1987, the two men were pitted against each other in an event that Sports Illustrated rightly called the "most compelling 100-meter dash in history." Johnson achieved much more than a decisive first-place finish. He shattered the world record for the 100 meters, running it in 9.83 seconds, a doubly stunning accomplishment in that Johnson ran at sea level, where sprinters are slowed somewhat by the comparatively heavy air.

"Big Ben," as Johnson was called because of his muscular physique, returned to Canada a conquering hero and as the odds-on favorite to capture the gold medal in the 100-meter sprint at the 1988 Olympic Summer Games.

Indeed, Johnson won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea in spectacular fashion. Besting second-place finisher Carl Lewis once again, he broke his own world record, running the 100 meters in 9.79 seconds. But within a matter of days, Johnson was stripped of both his medal and the world record when he tested positive for the use of steroids, a banned drug that is used by some athletes to bolster strength and endurance. Canadians, who considered Johnson a national hero, "doubled over in sickened disbelief, taking Johnson's humiliation as their own," a writer for Maclean's (October 10, 1988) observed.

Copyright © 1996 by The H. W. Wilson Co.


bullet3 Ben Johnson - Images

Here are some images of the sprinter Ben Johnson at the Seoul Olympics in South Korea in 1988.