He was very friendly at the US trials at the warm up track area when I was there.
A very neat piece written by Charles P Pierce for Grantland in the lead up to the release of 30 for 30.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8480214/979-ben-johnson-carl-lewis-seoul-olympics
Just finished watching the United States premiere of the documentary on ESPN 30 for 30. Question: Angela, in the documentary Ben Johnson stated that while visiting L.A. in 2006 a gentleman from the Santa Monica Track Club personally confessed to not only have spiked Ben Johnson’s drink at the 1988 Olympics but at many previous events. Was Charlie aware of this before he passed? I ask because Charlie shares his suspicions of the Americans in Speed Trap.
Of course.
I really appreciated and enjoyed this documentary. I became very excited when I noticed it on the schedule. I wish everyone in the documentary (I’m sure you know who I am referring to) would have been more forthcoming about their own habits. Perhaps the IOC might rethink the achievement award they doled out to the aforementioned individual.
This one was a little different than the version from this summer. I hated Carl before…After watching this I now have a total disdain for Carl. He was smug about what they did to set up Ben. Carl his “music manager” and Andre did ben dirty. But what really pisses me off is that not only did they destroy bens life, they destroyed alot of peoples lives. and killed possible wealth. Including Charlie’s and Angela. Carl IS a total dick. Fuck him!
i couldnt agree more
does anyone know of any way we can see this off the net??
Daniel Gordon ( creator and director of 9.79*) told me that he felt his 90 minute edit was much better than the British 55 minute edit. I agreed. When we went to London in 1991 to promote “Speed Trap” , Charlie felt the British had no interest talking about what he felt happen in Seoul.
What I really loved about the documentary was how each person revealed a clear picture of who they are based on the story they told. Mere words do not really cut it do they? The power of film allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions based on facial expressions, eye movement and body language.
Chris, Charlie was wounded for what happened but in the end he made piece with the world. Not many people accomplish what he did in his short life. Each of of in life get to choose how we handle situations and Charlie did so with integrity and hard work. He had much to be thankful for as do I and neither of us had any regrets. AT the end of our days, I want to see how many of us can really say this?
Im sure time does heal wounds. Im sure you and Charlie definitely enjoyed your lives and time together. One cannot dwell on something they cannot control. Charlie took the high road unlike trevor graham, and I thank him for that. Without what ive learned from Charlie I never would have ran my PR.
But I still have extreme contempt for Carl and his cronies. Atleast the film let everyone know that no other sprinters liked carl either. Even the americans.
Disappointment that didn’t get carried on TSN here in Canada. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. I’ll also plan time to re visit Speed Trap.
Trevor,
I hate telling you this but it was on last night on TSN.
^^^^ ouch lol
Just wanted to say that I caught the documentary on tv. I thought it was good. It was nice to see Charlie again, even if only through previous interviews and footage. Hope everything is going well with you Angela.
ouch is right. Thanks Angela.
I was on the road so I didn’t catch the 30 for 30 from the beginning. I was glad to see that they did not bury Ben or Charlie like the rest of the mainstream media has over the years. I actually tweeted about it and saw a lot of others tweeting as well. Some appeared outraged about the whole thing (rightfully so). Glad ESPN picked it and helped educate the world about what actually happened (or at least allow people to draw their own conclusions).
I recorded it on my PVR, watched it and will watch it again for sure. So many scenes left me with goosebumps.
I’m surprised how much I disliked Calvin Smith after watching it, as I’d always liked him before. Otherwise the documentary covered well-traveled territory but it was really cool to see the workout/training footage and some of the old photos.
I loved watching that 30 for 30, best one this season!
At the end, my wife looked at me with surprise and said what an A-hole Carl was :), and she had no history going into watching it like we all did.
It WAS a good one! That is for sure.
I was hoping that it would show BJ’s semi-race…the one that was called back after some twitching in the blocks…that must have been a .100 R/T Legit.
After reading speed trap for the 1st time back in the early 90s…i couldn’t help but wonder if he got that kind of R/T in the final and everything else being the same…slowing down with his arm in the air to a 9.76
Wow!!!
That F/S is no where on youtube dot com
edit: that false start is briefly shown in 02 Vancouver but one would have to see the whole thing and all the replays to get what I am talking about.
There was always an issue with the F/S with Ben as the device at first were apparently calibrated a certain way and much controversy ensued. I remember also what you are talking about regarding the footage.
Daniel Gordon told me a large cost of the film was spent getting the rights to the footage from all the races and clips. It’s possible he had access to seeing this film but it has not been released and or he chose not to use it. People do not understand ( nor did I ) the cost of making Documentary’s ( I was not aware either) but I remember discussion about the semi’s and believe there was some issue surrounding it.