Lewis Offers to Aid Canadian Steroid Inquiry

American track and field star Carl Lewis, winner of six Olympic gold medals, is willing to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry into steroid use.

“I thought they would ask me,” he said in a telephone interview from Houston with the Toronto Star in a story published today. “I’d like to help, if I was called. I think it would help the sport.”

Lewis was awarded the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, after Canadian Ben Johnson, the first-place finisher, tested positive for anabolic steroids and was disqualified.

Lewis also won the Olympic long jump this year and won four gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

‘Not Out to Crucify Ben’

“I’m not out to crucify Ben,” Lewis was quoted as saying. “I think we need to get the whole problem out into the open. I could talk about as much as I know, help expose the drug problem. A lot of positive things could come out of this.”

Ontario Associate Chief Justice Charles Dubin was appointed by the federal government after the scandal to investigate drug abuse in Canadian athletics. The hearings, which began last month with one session and do not resume until January, are expected to last for months.