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World's Fastest Man: The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson
For twenty-four hours in the summer of 1988, Canada’s Ben Johnson was the most celebrated athlete on the planet.
He’d won the 100-metre sprint at the Seoul Olympics in a world-record 9.79 seconds and just had time to say, “A gold medal—that’s something no one can take away from you,” before testing positive for performance enhancing drugs and giving back his medal.
Admitting to steroid use, Johnson has lived in ignominy ever since, but there's much more to his incredible story. The sprint he won has since been called “the dirtiest race in history,” with six of eight competitors linked to doping infractions. The steroid for which Johnson tested positive was not the steroid he was using. There were so many irregularities and mistakes in his testing that credible experts now say he should never have been disqualified and some see a conspiracy of Johnson’s track rivals behind his disgrace.
Sportswriter Mary Ormsby was on the scene in Seoul. Now, with unprecedented access to Johnson, she tells his whole story for the first time—the rise of a skinny kid working Jamaican sugar estates to track-and-field superstardom to his lifetime ban from the sport and his unyielding efforts to determine exactly what happened to him on that fateful night in 1988.
He’d won the 100-metre sprint at the Seoul Olympics in a world-record 9.79 seconds and just had time to say, “A gold medal—that’s something no one can take away from you,” before testing positive for performance enhancing drugs and giving back his medal.
Admitting to steroid use, Johnson has lived in ignominy ever since, but there's much more to his incredible story. The sprint he won has since been called “the dirtiest race in history,” with six of eight competitors linked to doping infractions. The steroid for which Johnson tested positive was not the steroid he was using. There were so many irregularities and mistakes in his testing that credible experts now say he should never have been disqualified and some see a conspiracy of Johnson’s track rivals behind his disgrace.
Sportswriter Mary Ormsby was on the scene in Seoul. Now, with unprecedented access to Johnson, she tells his whole story for the first time—the rise of a skinny kid working Jamaican sugar estates to track-and-field superstardom to his lifetime ban from the sport and his unyielding efforts to determine exactly what happened to him on that fateful night in 1988.
- GenresNonfictionSportsCanada
308 pages, Hardcover
Published April 16, 2024
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43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 28, 2024
Thoroughly enjoyed Mary Ormsby’s book, The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson: World’s Fastest Man*. NB, there is an asterisk at the end of the title and it NEEDS to be there.
Ormsby was present for the main event and interviews many of the important characters in this book. She asks questions of the process and answers many more that I wasn’t aware of back in the 1980s. If you remember Ben Johnson and the Dubin Inquiry, this is a MUST read!
Ormsby was present for the main event and interviews many of the important characters in this book. She asks questions of the process and answers many more that I wasn’t aware of back in the 1980s. If you remember Ben Johnson and the Dubin Inquiry, this is a MUST read!
November 21, 2024
An excellent biography on the life of sprinter Ben Johnson. I vividly remember the excitement of watching Ben win the Gold Medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Later, bewildered when he tested positive for a banned steroid and forced to return the gold medal. To this day, Ben Johnson maintains his innocence and believes someone tampered with his sample following race in Seoul. But later, he admitted to steroid use during the Dubin Inquiry. The author firmly believes, Ben did not receive due process in Seoul and that his gold medal should not have been taken away, his drug screening riddled with irregularities and crucial testing evidence was withheld by Olympic officials.
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August 24, 2025I am an Olympics nerd. I remember the race hype, the thrill of the gold and the disappointment and anger at the medal stripping. I remember too how quickly Ben Johnson became a villain and then basically forgotten (by me). This book was well written and interesting, perhaps mostly because I knew many of the names of athletes, coaches, meets etc. It was interesting to see the how’s of the doping, the prevalence, the coverups and passes that some (USA) got. Also Ben after Seoul 1988. With such success by the age of 24, his life hasn’t been easy
January 20, 2025
In The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson: World’s Fastest Man*, journalist Mary Ormsby tells the extraordinary and chaotic story of one of the most controversial figures in sports history. The book is a biography of the Canadian sprinter whose career was defined by both remarkable athletic success and a doping scandal that shocked the world. Ormsby goes through Johnson’s life from running around the neighbourhood in Jamaica gambling pennies to his immigration to Canada and his rise through the Scarborough Optimists, where he met his longtime coach and friend Charlie Francis. The story goes through Johnson becoming the fastest man on the planet after breaking the 100-meter world record at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. However, his victory was soon overshadowed by a positive drug test, leading to his disqualification and disgrace worldwide. Ormsby's expertly balanced book shows the full story behind the disqualification and beyond when Johnson worked as a personal trainer for one of the greatest soccer players of all time, Diego Maradona, and the son of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The story shows Johnson’s resilience, redemption, despair, fear, and the heavy cost of pursuing greatness no matter the price.
Two adjectives I would use to describe the book are gripping and staggering. When I first decided to read the book, I was sure it would be a slow-moving book that was very detail heavy. However, I was pleasantly surprised that as soon as I started reading, I could not put the book down. Ormsby, through incredible research and interviews with Johnson and many others, made the book refreshing and action-packed, with many chapters leaving you on edge to find out the full story. The book itself is staggering, as some of the things Johnson did were astonishing, such as working for Muammar Gaddafi's son. Gaddafi was condemned by Canada as a dictator whose rule violated human rights and funded global terrorism in Libya and abroad. Another staggering thing was the brutal fall from grace that ensued after Johnson was found doping.
I learned new things with every chapter, but the most striking was the extreme detail that Mary Ormsby went into regarding the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Ormsby goes through when exactly they took the drugs, what they were, and their motivation behind it (if everyone else is cheating, why shouldn’t we, and Charlie Francis’ famous idea that if you don’t use steroids, you start a meter behind the rest of your competitors).
Something I liked about the book was that I felt it gave a balanced view of Ben Johnson. After the scandal that rocked Canada and the rest of the globe, many people had a deep dislike towards Johnson, but the book explored his background, his motivations, and the pressures he faced. It gave a very unbiased view of the story; for instance, Johnson lost his temper at his competitor Carl Lewis and explained, “I was so upset, I pushed the [media] crowd open, and I said to him, ‘In Rome, it won’t be this close’ . . . It was widely reported that Johnson also called him a ‘clown.’ Johnson doesn’t remember saying that but concedes it was possible.” This fact-checking, in a sense, and getting different perspectives can be seen throughout the book and allows the reader to come to their own judgment knowing the full story.
This book demonstrates how pressure on athletes to be perfect can lead them to make difficult and sometimes regrettable decisions. It shows how intense scrutiny, the desire for success, and the need to meet expectations can push athletes beyond their limits—both physically and morally. Johnson’s desire to be the best caused him to feel that using performance-enhancing drugs was not cheating. Through Johnson’s story, the book shows the psychological toll that such pressure can take, as throughout his career he would delve into spells of depression.
I would recommend this book to track and field fans, Canadians who watched the famous race in Seoul and anyone who wants to read a fast-paced story that goes into the details behind the most scandalous race in history.
I am going to finish this review with two quotes that I feel sum up the two drastically different situations that spanned just three days.
“It was over less than a second after the pistol fired. A clean start. Johnson leapt from the blocks the fastest, both feet off the ground, arms flug unnaturally high behind his shoulders, and fingers spread wide on each hand. Airborne. Carl Lewis could only play catch-up. . . ‘In my mind, I said to myself: Shit this is fast.”
“September 26, 1988 dawned fresh and cool in Seoul. At the Hilton hotel, clattering breakfast trays were being wheeled along halls by room service staff when coach Charlie Francis banged on the new Olympic 100-meter sprint champion’s door. Ben Johnson opened it. He froze when he saw his coach’s stricken face. ‘You tested positive.’ Johnson staggered back into his room, sat on the edge of a sofa and buried his head in his hands. ‘No, no’ he moaned. ‘They finally got me.’”
All in all, this book is a delightful read that I would highly recommend.
Two adjectives I would use to describe the book are gripping and staggering. When I first decided to read the book, I was sure it would be a slow-moving book that was very detail heavy. However, I was pleasantly surprised that as soon as I started reading, I could not put the book down. Ormsby, through incredible research and interviews with Johnson and many others, made the book refreshing and action-packed, with many chapters leaving you on edge to find out the full story. The book itself is staggering, as some of the things Johnson did were astonishing, such as working for Muammar Gaddafi's son. Gaddafi was condemned by Canada as a dictator whose rule violated human rights and funded global terrorism in Libya and abroad. Another staggering thing was the brutal fall from grace that ensued after Johnson was found doping.
I learned new things with every chapter, but the most striking was the extreme detail that Mary Ormsby went into regarding the use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. Ormsby goes through when exactly they took the drugs, what they were, and their motivation behind it (if everyone else is cheating, why shouldn’t we, and Charlie Francis’ famous idea that if you don’t use steroids, you start a meter behind the rest of your competitors).
Something I liked about the book was that I felt it gave a balanced view of Ben Johnson. After the scandal that rocked Canada and the rest of the globe, many people had a deep dislike towards Johnson, but the book explored his background, his motivations, and the pressures he faced. It gave a very unbiased view of the story; for instance, Johnson lost his temper at his competitor Carl Lewis and explained, “I was so upset, I pushed the [media] crowd open, and I said to him, ‘In Rome, it won’t be this close’ . . . It was widely reported that Johnson also called him a ‘clown.’ Johnson doesn’t remember saying that but concedes it was possible.” This fact-checking, in a sense, and getting different perspectives can be seen throughout the book and allows the reader to come to their own judgment knowing the full story.
This book demonstrates how pressure on athletes to be perfect can lead them to make difficult and sometimes regrettable decisions. It shows how intense scrutiny, the desire for success, and the need to meet expectations can push athletes beyond their limits—both physically and morally. Johnson’s desire to be the best caused him to feel that using performance-enhancing drugs was not cheating. Through Johnson’s story, the book shows the psychological toll that such pressure can take, as throughout his career he would delve into spells of depression.
I would recommend this book to track and field fans, Canadians who watched the famous race in Seoul and anyone who wants to read a fast-paced story that goes into the details behind the most scandalous race in history.
I am going to finish this review with two quotes that I feel sum up the two drastically different situations that spanned just three days.
“It was over less than a second after the pistol fired. A clean start. Johnson leapt from the blocks the fastest, both feet off the ground, arms flug unnaturally high behind his shoulders, and fingers spread wide on each hand. Airborne. Carl Lewis could only play catch-up. . . ‘In my mind, I said to myself: Shit this is fast.”
“September 26, 1988 dawned fresh and cool in Seoul. At the Hilton hotel, clattering breakfast trays were being wheeled along halls by room service staff when coach Charlie Francis banged on the new Olympic 100-meter sprint champion’s door. Ben Johnson opened it. He froze when he saw his coach’s stricken face. ‘You tested positive.’ Johnson staggered back into his room, sat on the edge of a sofa and buried his head in his hands. ‘No, no’ he moaned. ‘They finally got me.’”
All in all, this book is a delightful read that I would highly recommend.
March 20, 2025
What a gripping account of an iconic sportsman of our times. I couldn’t put it down. An imperfect man and the facts of whether he doped or not aren’t a question but he truly was made to take the fall when others got away scot free. This was a lot different than I remember this story to be.
June 12, 2024
Meticulously researched and well-written, this book makes a strong case that Ben Johnson was denied due process when he was stripped of the gold medal he won for running the fastest 100-metres in history — 9.79 seconds — at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Certainly he has paid an exorbitant price for testing positive for steroid use — his entire adult life.
July 29, 2024
4.5 stars, rounded up.
A gripping and fascinating chronicle of a turning point in the global sporting world that reads like a true crime book or even a suspense/thriller novel.
Yes: Mr. Johnson was guilty, he was caught, his medal was taken away.
However: This meticulously-researched and detailed book raises a multitude of valid questions.
It is difficult NOT to conclude that the IOC chose to make a very public example of Ben Johnson and Canada rather than any other athlete from any other country, because at the time it would have been too "costly" (politically and financially) for the Games to expose and confront the rampant doping use in more powerful countries - i.e., the USSR, the UK, and the US.
For those without the time or inclination (or open-mindedness) to read the book, a few quotes...
"Canada’s chief medical officer in Seoul wanted to see [the comprehensive screening data supporting the anabolic steroid analysis]. He was refused each time by the IOC medical commission.”
“…it’s like going to court to fight a drunk driving charge, but the police won’t hand over your breathalyzer readings as evidence.”
On Johnson’s lab report: “Unsigned handwritten alterations riddle the thirty-one pages – a series of revisions, deletions, question marks, switched lab codes, calculation doodles, and, oddly, the name of a different anabolic steroid, oxandrolone.”
“If [the additional endocrine profiling] was so reliable, why wasn’t it used on every Olympic athlete? And if it was not reliable, why use it only on Johnson?”
“In 2023, [American forensic toxicologist Dr. David] Black reviewed Johnson’s 1988 urine screening documentation from Seoul…. ‘My succinct expert opinion is that this data is unacceptable under current laboratory requirements and should have been unacceptable in 1988.’”
"...is it fair to ask if a cheater can be cheated by the system when denied of due process? The answer is yes, even for some who are unflinching anti-doping advocates.”
“Ben Johnson’s story has staying power. Love him or hate him, he remains a compelling historical sports figure whose downfall retains a stubborn wisp of mystery.”
A gripping and fascinating chronicle of a turning point in the global sporting world that reads like a true crime book or even a suspense/thriller novel.
Yes: Mr. Johnson was guilty, he was caught, his medal was taken away.
However: This meticulously-researched and detailed book raises a multitude of valid questions.
It is difficult NOT to conclude that the IOC chose to make a very public example of Ben Johnson and Canada rather than any other athlete from any other country, because at the time it would have been too "costly" (politically and financially) for the Games to expose and confront the rampant doping use in more powerful countries - i.e., the USSR, the UK, and the US.
For those without the time or inclination (or open-mindedness) to read the book, a few quotes...
"Canada’s chief medical officer in Seoul wanted to see [the comprehensive screening data supporting the anabolic steroid analysis]. He was refused each time by the IOC medical commission.”
“…it’s like going to court to fight a drunk driving charge, but the police won’t hand over your breathalyzer readings as evidence.”
On Johnson’s lab report: “Unsigned handwritten alterations riddle the thirty-one pages – a series of revisions, deletions, question marks, switched lab codes, calculation doodles, and, oddly, the name of a different anabolic steroid, oxandrolone.”
“If [the additional endocrine profiling] was so reliable, why wasn’t it used on every Olympic athlete? And if it was not reliable, why use it only on Johnson?”
“In 2023, [American forensic toxicologist Dr. David] Black reviewed Johnson’s 1988 urine screening documentation from Seoul…. ‘My succinct expert opinion is that this data is unacceptable under current laboratory requirements and should have been unacceptable in 1988.’”
"...is it fair to ask if a cheater can be cheated by the system when denied of due process? The answer is yes, even for some who are unflinching anti-doping advocates.”
“Ben Johnson’s story has staying power. Love him or hate him, he remains a compelling historical sports figure whose downfall retains a stubborn wisp of mystery.”
June 21, 2024
The bottom line, you may not have knowingly taken THAT steroid Ben, but you clearly admit that you were taking steroids. You cheated, you got caught. I read this book with interest, as the Ben Johnson story is part of our Canadian story. The world of drug testing has significantly changed, I can assure you that beer is not offered to athletes as they wait to provide their urine sample! I admire and applaud all the Canadian athletes that compete clean.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews