He pointed to the sky. Even before he crossed the line, the victor looked across at the vanquished. And on the television screen was that astonishing time. Twenty years on, no one who watched Ben Johnson win the Olympic 100-metre final in Seoul will have forgotten what they saw. The Canadian won in 9.79 seconds, faster than anyone had run the distance before-and faster than anyone else would run it for almost 11 years afterwards.rnNor will anyone have forgotten that three days later Mr Johnson was disqualified after his urine was found to containrnstanozolol, a steroid. Since then the list of shamed sprinters has lengthened considerably. It includes Justin Gatlin, Olympic champion in Athens, Tim Montgomerie, another 100-metre record holder, Marion Jones, winner of several Olympic medals, and Dwain Chambers, a European champion in 2002. All these had been supplied by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a Californian company. Ms Jones was jailed for lying under oath about her drugtaking. In July Mr Chambers lost a legal battle against a lifetime Olympic ban.
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