Jamaica’s world record holder Usain Bolt has a lot more weighing on his young shoulders than just trying to become his country’s first Olympic 100m champion.
He also faces the task of trying to restore some faith in being the world’s fastest man 20 years on from the moment Ben Johnson destroyed the image of the ‘blue riband event’ in the Seoul Olympics.
The 21-year-old Bolt succeeded compatriot Asafa Powell as the world record holder in May but it would not be a surprise that many just shrugged their shoulders at the feat given the tarnished image of
several of his predecessors.
Johnson may have been the most shameless offender — the arrogance of his raising his finger metres from the finish of the Olympic final and virtually pulling up will remain one of sport’s more iconic images — but he is not the only one to have joined the hall of shame.
Two subsequent Olympic 100m champions Linford Christie (1992) and Justin Gatlin (2004) have also failed tests.
Gatlin, who also held the 100m world record, tried and failed to win a reprieve so he could compete in the Olympic trials.
Another former world recordholder and dope cheat Tim Montgomery has faced different trials of his own and has probably sunk lower than any of his fellow 100 metres ”heroes”.
Already serving a four-year prison sentence for his role in a cheque-fraud conspiracy, Montgomery — who ran 9,78 seconds in Paris in 2002 — faces a minimum of five years in prison on heroin distribution charges. His sentencing is set for October 10.
Montgomery — whose former girlfriend Marion Jones is already in prison for perjury following a doping scandal of her own — could also be fined up to $2-million and faces at least four years of
supervised release.
Not even Maurice Greene has escaped the eye of suspicion with a report in April 14’s New York Times alleging that American federal
investigators had named the former world record holder and 2000 Olympic champion during their probe into doping in athetics.
Greene — who was never previously linked to performance-enhancing drugs — was listed as one of a dozen athletes by witness Angel Guillermo Heredia.
Four of the dozen athletes, including Jones, have already been named and barred from competition for illicit drug use.
”This is a bad situation for me,” Greene told the Daily Telegraph. ”My name’s come up in something and it’s not true.
However, the fallout from the successive scandals and allegations has according to World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) chief John Fahey taken its inevitable toll on the public, adding more pressure to Bolt in
turning round the perceived opinion.
Fahey admitted that his own view had grown more jaundiced since the Ben Johnson affair as a succession of 100 metres world record holders
and Olympic champions had also failed dope tests.
”I agree there is suspicion among the public,” said Fahey on Thursday. ”The public will desert any sport that they feel doesn’t have integrity.
”I hope and pray we don’t have another offence this year and that there is no fallout from the 100m.
”I hope [the sport] gets back on track otherwise it’s morally bankrupt and effectively we are telling our children to take a mouthful of pills to succeed.
”I hope in two weeks’ time we walk away saying we had the results that has put the sport on the right track.”
Bolt, who will try to become the Caribbean’s first 100m champion since Trinidad’s Hasely Crawford in 1976, is adamant he does not care about the hall of shame, only about the present.
”I know I’ll be clean and I’m hoping everyone else in the field will be, but I can’t speak for them.” – AFP
