8 runners. One fateful day in 1988. One disgraced drug cheat.
Or so we think?
This documentary provides so much more than that. Each runner in the 100 meters final is interviewed and looked back on as the era of drugs and steroids tarnished the sprinting game forever. Focusing if i can say that, on Ben Johnson, we look at a man who was not the smartest, who was vulnerable, yet was a cheat. Then, it becomes clear the extent of runners on drugs and how drugs tarnished not just a man, but an entire era.
We learn to somehow feel sorry for these runners if we can as it had been drained into their minds that drugs was the only way to get ahead. Yet if questioned, deny, deny deny. To me, the tension of those races must have been so much more than the outcome of the finish. The tell-tale heart, especiall of those on drugs, must have been racing and to be honest, in 2020, I can only feel sorry for Ben Johnson. He wasn’t a smart man, but he was gullible, and now more than 30 years later, he is still paying the price for an error that was not entirely his fault. The records and medals all deserve to be taken away, but Ben’s spirit and dignity were taken away forever with the shocking announcement in 1988, one of the very first instances of drugs(it has to be realized that these outbreaks are commonplace now, back then they were unheard of).
To keep this in context, if you read my last book review on the cricket book, my dad was obsessed with cricket and nothing else. Even his family and my grandparents heard and were shocked on that fateful day in 1988, where Ben Johnson was exposed and my father was the same age I was(17) and felt the disgrace yet sorriness for Ben. The fact that 32 years later, I am able to feel the same is a testament to the quality of the documentary.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
8 runners. One fateful day in 1988. One disgraced drug cheat.
Or so we think?
This documentary provides so much more than that. Each runner in the 100 meters final is interviewed and looked back on as the era of drugs and steroids tarnished the sprinting game forever. Focusing if i can say that, on Ben Johnson, we look at a man who was not the smartest, who was vulnerable, yet was a cheat. Then, it becomes clear the extent of runners on drugs and how drugs tarnished not just a man, but an entire era.
We learn to somehow feel sorry for these runners if we can as it had been drained into their minds that drugs was the only way to get ahead. Yet if questioned, deny, deny deny. To me, the tension of those races must have been so much more than the outcome of the finish. The tell-tale heart, especiall of those on drugs, must have been racing and to be honest, in 2020, I can only feel sorry for Ben Johnson. He wasn’t a smart man, but he was gullible, and now more than 30 years later, he is still paying the price for an error that was not entirely his fault. The records and medals all deserve to be taken away, but Ben’s spirit and dignity were taken away forever with the shocking announcement in 1988, one of the very first instances of drugs(it has to be realized that these outbreaks are commonplace now, back then they were unheard of).
To keep this in context, if you read my last book review on the cricket book, my dad was obsessed with cricket and nothing else. Even his family and my grandparents heard and were shocked on that fateful day in 1988, where Ben Johnson was exposed and my father was the same age I was(17) and felt the disgrace yet sorriness for Ben. The fact that 32 years later, I am able to feel the same is a testament to the quality of the documentary.