Two decades after he’d run his last race, Ben Johnson can still bring a crowd to its feet.
He just wishes he had a little more notice.
“I’m exhausted,” the former Canadian sprint star said, laughing.
More than twenty years after his fall from grace, Johnson was back on the track Tuesday night anchoring his pro-am relay team to victory as part of the Toronto International Track and Field Games at Varsity Stadium.
“It’s been a long time,” Johnson said. “If I knew that this [race] was going to happen, I would have trained myself two or three months ago.”
Daniel Gordon’s film 9.79* made some ground in educating the general public about some of the political issues in sport.
I enjoyed reading some of the comments to this story as well.
Rainy.here…, thank-you for posting the video.
I was there- both Angella Issajenko and Ben ran in the heats and finals from what I understand. I missed the heats, but then I saw this ultra-confident familiar looking guy warming up. Who else could this be?
Coming off the final bend it was a clinic on what great mechanics look like. I was marking out so hard for the run that I didn’t get any video. Ben’s team destroyed the field. The only downside was that Angella was on a team of perhaps the worst athletes in human history so she got the baton pretty late. They both looked like they had a good time, as they were all smiles afterward.
It was a real treat to see these two legends lace up the spikes!
Ben still runs and trains a little bit.
One thing I thought was interesting about Ben was his ability to know what to train and when his body had enough. You must have a coach that either teaches this quality or respects this quality or knows exactly what they are doing. Otherwise the athlete will never realize their personal best.
Ange, I remember when you and I were warming up together in the park one day and you told me that Ben taught you the importance of just letting the warm up happen not trying to force it.
It sure is! Angella is always in great shape. She honestly works harder than some active female sprint athletes. It’s not hard to see why she is the greatest female sprinter in Canadian history. Her mental strength is unbelievable.
