Usain Bolt’s iconic 100m world record of 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, turned 16 last month. The mark has now stood the test of time and technology, still unchallenged by this next generation of sprinters.
In an interview on his former American rival Justin Gatlin’s Ready. Set. Go. podcast, Bolt was asked to name his dream 100m lineup (the seven athletes he would most love to race). The list featured legends of the sport, but one Canadian name in particular stood out.
Bolt, now 39, began with the obvious choices: himself, Gatlin, American Tyson Gay and his Jamaican teammates Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake. He then added U.S. sprinter Maurice Greene, the 2000 Olympic champion, before naming Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson.
“I would definitely like to compete against Maurice Greene, Ben Johnson,” Bolt said. “It’s tough to put a last one—give Noah Lyles, just because I would love to race against him and beat him.”
To this day, Johnson remains one of track and field’s most controversial figures. He won the men’s 100m at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in a then-world record of 9.79 seconds, but was stripped of his gold medal three days later after testing positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. From 1986 to 1988, Johnson was nearly untouchable in the 100m and 60m (indoors), becoming the first sprinter to break both the 9.9- and 9.8-second barriers.
Following the positive test in Seoul, the Scarborough, Ont., native initially denied doping, but later admitted to steroid use during the 1989 Dubin Inquiry, which was Canada’s federal investigation into performance-enhancing drugs. His coach, Charlie Francis, testified in the inquiry that Johnson had been using steroids since 1981.
Bolt’s choice to include Johnson might not be so surprising; both sprinters were raised in Jamaica’s Trelawny Parish, and grew up in towns 20 minutes away from one another. Still, considering Bolt’s late-career friendship and rivalry with Canadian Olympian Andre De Grasse, some might have expected De Grasse’s name on the list, instead.
