THE SEOUL GAMES / THE BEN JOHNSON CONTROVERSY : DeMont Has Compassion for Johnson

Former Olympic swimmer Rick DeMont says he knows just how Ben Johnson is feeling.

“He’s feeling so terrible you can’t describe it, and my heart goes out to him,” DeMont said of Johnson, a Canadian sprinter who set a world record in the 100-meter dash Saturday but was stripped of his Olympic gold medal Monday after tests showed he had used anabolic steroids.

“He’s got some trouble to go through now,” DeMont said Tuesday. “It’s going to be painful. It’s going to be awful. We’ll see if he makes it.”

DeMont, 32, underwent the same experience, but without the stigma of steroid use. In the 1972 Munich Olympics, he won the 400-meter freestyle but had to forfeit his gold medal after tests revealed that his asthma medication contained a prohibited drug.

DeMont said the drug did not help his swimming.

Johnson’s urine test showed traces of a water-based steroid called stanozolol, used to increase strength and speed.

“I feel this is a very, very different situation than mine,” said DeMont, a landscape painter who lives in nearby Oracle and is a part-time assistant swimming coach at the University of Arizona.

“I wasn’t trying to gain anything, and I wasn’t trying to hide anything,” DeMont said. “I’m not saying he was. I haven’t put any judgment on Ben, and I won’t. But my situation is seen by most folks as unfair.”

DeMont said he had been taking the asthma medication since childhood and had listed it on 1972 U.S. Olympic Committee medical forms.

But because of an apparent oversight by U.S. team doctors, he wasn’t notified that his medication, called Marax, contained the banned drug ephedrine.

He said he was favored in the 1,500-meter freestyle after winning the 400 but was removed from competition 10 minutes before the final of the longer race.

“Basically, I went from what I felt would have been two gold medals to being ejected like a criminal,” DeMont said. “It was hard for a 16-year-old. It was the worst feeling I can remember in my life.”

He said the International Olympic Committee never really considered his case when he attended a hearing.

“I headed home, just like Ben,” DeMont said.