Derek,
I for one would be happy if we were able to persuade the journalist Mike Hurst to prepare something on my / our behalf. They appear to have had a close relationship and Mike posted a nice article at
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/more-sports/end-of-good-run-for-flawed-coach/story-e6frey6i-1225866355387
I have edited bits from that which to me could possibly from the basis of something.
[i]Like 10,824 members of his internet coaching forum (charliefrancis.com), I am shocked and saddened.
Especially saddened at the news agency reports that typically dismiss Charlie as “the coach who gave dope to Ben Johnson, the first Olympic champion ever to be disqualified”. The charge was true and, to his credit, he never denied it.
By the brilliance of his mind and the strength of his personality, Charlie turned coaching on its head, in much the same way that he exposed the great track and field swindle at the Dubin Inquiry with the use of facts.
With his interpretation of science-based facts related to the physiology of exercise, Charlie - through personal consultations, training manuals, books (notably Speed Trap) and DVDs - has influenced every athlete who has run 100m in 9.8sec or faster, whether they are conscious of the source of their knowledge or not.
So many sportswriters since that day of infamy in Seoul in 1988 portrayed Charlie as a lone wolf, a pariah in the athletics community, a one-off rogue coach.
Since Johnson was busted, though, far more than 1000 elite sportsmen and women have failed drug tests - none of them associated with Charlie.
Yet he remains the only coach ever to stand up in public and tell it how it was, and probably still is.
Charlie acknowledged his “wrong-headedness” and although banned for life from coaching in Canada, he had spent the rest of his years trying to make amends by helping journalists expose the frauds and helping coaches and athletes - including contemporary Canadian champions - arrive at victory without doping.
A Stanford University graduate in modern history, Charlie had a piercing intellect and a wicked sense of humour.[/i]
Re this site, it will always be ‘Charlie’s site’ but I expect it will continue, obviously without the same special flavour and insight Charlie brought though. If help is needed in anyway just ask.