On a sunny May afternoon in 2016, Ben Johnson sat in the hallowed halls of the Old Library at Trinity College and spoke about the dirtiest race in history.
“Sprinters are born, not made,” Johnson said, still believing he was somehow destined to win the 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul Olympics – even if, 48 hours after beating Carl Lewis, lowering the world record to 9.79 seconds, Johnson tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.
The mostly delusional ramblings of the former Canadian sprinter, a guest in Dublin for the Crossing the Line conference, centred on the infamous 100m in Seoul, where six of the eight finalists ended up being implicated in the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
“It bothers me sometimes,” Johnson added, “and I interview myself, and ask did I do the right thing? At the time it was the right thing. But now, I would probably do it again, so to speak. I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
RM Block
That 100m in Seoul has been labelled the dirtiest race in history, but next year’s Enhanced Games – where athletes are allowed and encouraged to use banned performance-enhancing drugs, with hefty cash bonuses for anyone who breaks a world record – promises to take things to another level again.
So much for the natural evolution of health and human performance. Prof Niall Moyna can boast almost 50 years of near-continuous study on that subject, which began when he was a student of PE back in 1977, and, like most people in the sporting and science world, he’s both angry and aghast.
“When I first heard about the Enhanced Games, I assumed it was a joke,” says Moyna, who since 2000 has specialised in exercise physiology at the School of Health & Human Performance at Dublin City University (DCU). “Then I thought, ‘Oh, Christ. Are we actually prepared to sacrifice the life of a human being for entertainment?’
“This, to me, is like going back to gladiators, only in this case using young athletes to entertain these mega-rich billionaires. Because this is not about sport. And it’s definitely not about science. This is purely about money.
“And trying to dress this up under the mirage of human performance is the greatest load of nonsense. It absolutely cuts through the ethos of what sport is all about, and I really hope it doesn’t take a fatality to bring us to our senses.”
Before this week, the Enhanced Games were mostly an unknown entity in Ireland. Shane Ryan opened the lid on the Pandora’s box on Monday, confirming he’d signed up for the first edition, set to take place in Las Vegas next May.
Just a week after the three-time Olympic swimmer retired from the international stage, Ryan was quick to admit he is largely motivated by the money. By his own repeated admission, having done things “the clean way” and “the right way”, it is time for something different.
Sonia O’Sullivan was denied countless medals over the years by athletes later found out to be taking performance-enhancing drugs, and she believes Ryan has crossed a line. The fact Ryan is US-born and raised, only declaring for Ireland (the birthplace of his father) before the Rio Olympics in 2016, may have lessened any burden of guilt.
“I do think any Irish-born athlete would be a lot more reluctant to sign up,” says O’Sullivan. “Because how would you live with it? You’ve thrown away everything that’s got you to where you are – that stays with you for life.
“I mean, you couldn’t walk down the street if you were an Irish athlete and went down that route. Maybe it’s easier for him, he’s already left Ireland. Most people here had never heard of him before this week anyway – now he’s famous for all the wrong reasons.
“And he has this notion he wants to know the maximum of what he’s capable. But it’s no longer you. It’s a manufactured version of you. You’re not doing it naturally, which is the whole premise of being an elite athlete.”
Ryan has also claimed he struggled to make a name for himself as an elite swimmer in Ireland, and that’s part of his motivation for grabbing the offer from the Enhanced Games – which is also in the business of promoting and selling substances otherwise only available under medical prescription.
Since 2016, Ryan has benefited from around €180,000 in Sport Ireland funding (€18,000 a year). To make three successive Olympics, Moyna says, is a remarkable sporting achievement by any standard, but Moyna also believes Ryan is now entering an entirely different realm, with dangerous consequences.
“I heard Shane talking on the radio about this thing being strictly monitored,” says Moyna. “They’ve no idea. Unless they’re doing proper pharmacokinetics studies, with diurnal variations, like I did, because every individual is going to be different.
“And I’ve never read any peer-review paper that said we’re going to take five or six different banned substances, give all five or six to a group of athletes, and let’s see how they respond. This is a live experiment, on human beings, and possibly sacrificing people’s lives for entertainment.
“It’s simply wrong to take any substance that is not required, knowing the many side effects, to only to enhance performance. In our tendons, for example, we’ve sensors which can sense the amount of force, because we don’t want to rip or tear tendons off the bone. With all that extra testosterone and human growth hormone, they’ll easily overcome those sensors, rip the muscle right off the tendon. No doubt about it.
“EPO [erythropoietin] can turn your blood into syrup, or like honey. We know that because when it first came on the scene, several young cyclists died in their sleep.
“There is also evidence that taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs can result in depression, anxiety, mania. Maybe it’s the world we live in now, you can’t open social media without someone trying to sell you something. But we need to be very, very hard on this, so there’s no ambiguity whatsoever. No matter who you are, or what you’ve achieved, this is an absolute no-go. Under any circumstances.”
O’Sullivan isn’t convinced Ryan has thought through the entire process either. “People fall for his ‘poor me’ thing, but they don’t see the reality of it. He has to try to justify it. He talks about being on €18,000 a year, but that’s not income, it’s support. On top of all the other support and services provided by Swim Ireland and Sport Ireland. You are looked after.
“Some people are lucky that they can make a career out of sport, but the vast majority can’t. Look at the Irish rowers. They don’t make any money either – many of them go on to bigger things, become doctors.
“It seems to me he just didn’t have any plan. He’s managed to justify this to himself, because of the people he’s talking to. He’s 31 now, but he’s not that good of a swimmer in relation to world records. He’d only be taking drugs to bring him up the level of those swimmers who did something at the Olympics.”
Moyna’s lifetime of work in human performance stretches across several sports, including Gaelic football. He also believes the message being sent by the Enhanced Games cannot be shot down quick enough.
“We’ve seen the outcry already, hopefully this doesn’t get any more oxygen. It shouldn’t even be on the sports pages. From every single angle you look at it, it’s wrong.
“I’m not convinced this will go ahead, because of the legal issues, in addition to the health issues, but we need more than just the sporting world to say this should definitely not happen.”
It could be that, 37 years after the Seoul Olympics and the dirtiest race in history, the best outcome for the Enhanced Games, if they do go ahead, is Moyna’s hope that no one will have died.
