The Ben Johnson Steroid Inquiry : Case Offered by Sprinter’s Attorney Not Holding Up

The case advanced by Ben Johnson’s attorney that the disgraced Canadian sprinter did not have the intelligence to make decisions for himself, and thus was manipulated by his coach, Charlie Francis, began to unravel Thursday.

By the end of the day, the seventh that Francis has appeared before the federal commission of inquiry into drug use by athletes, it was apparent that even the commission’s chairman, Ontario associate chief justice Charles L. Dubin, was impatient with the line of questioning by Johnson’s attorney, Ed Futerman.

On Wednesday, his first day of cross-examining Francis, Futerman tried to establish that an uneducated, naive Johnson was duped by the coach into using performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids, when the sprinter was 19.

But as Futerman tried to reinforce that argument Thursday, even implying that as late as 1987 Johnson did not have the intelligence to make a long-distance telephone call from Japan to Toronto by himself, Francis gave several examples of the sprinter’s increasing independence as he became older.

He repeated his testimony of last week that Johnson, 26 at the time, made the decision to end their relationship and coach himself for a brief period during the summer of 1988.

“Ben wasn’t happy with me and didn’t want my input as to what was necessary for him to be healthy leading up to the Olympic Games,” Francis said. “Ben’s a man who can make up his own mind. He had to make a decision whether he wanted to follow my advice or not.”

They began working together again two months before the Summer Olympics in Seoul, where Johnson won the gold medal in the 100 meters but was disqualified after testing positive for a steroid, stanozolol.

Futerman repeatedly pressed Francis about an earlier period in 1988, when Johnson, against the coach’s advice, went to St. Kitts in the Caribbean without his physical therapist, Waldemar Matuszewski. When Futerman tried to establish that Francis wanted to lie to Johnson about Matuszewski’s role in St. Kitts because the truth would have confused the sprinter, Dubin objected.

“Mr. Futerman, you’re attempting to make something sound sinister that’s not sinister at all,” he said. “How you can do that is beyond my understanding.”

Dubin interrupted Futerman on several occasions, rebuking him for asking misleading, unfair and confusing questions. At one point, Futerman asked Francis to stand, bend over and show Dubin on which part of the anatomy injections were given to athletes. Dubin said that would not be necessary.

Dubin also reminded Futerman that it does not serve the purpose of the inquiry to pit Johnson against Francis.

“By (Francis’) own admission, he’s not tried to avoid his own responsibility,” Dubin said. “He’s given us evidence as to what he did and given explanations for it. I don’t consider it justification.

“But let’s confine this to the use of drugs by our own Canadian athletes and the circumstances under which they were administered. There is no evidence of animosity toward Mr. Johnson by the witness.”

Futerman said that Johnson has no animosity toward Francis and will make that clear in testimony later during the inquiry. Francis will return to the witness stand today for further cross-examination by Futerman, followed by questions from Dubin.

In making a point Thursday that Francis was not vigilant concerning the health of his athletes, Futerman asked the coach if he was aware that in October, 1987, a doctor found that Johnson was suffering from gynecomastia, a steroid-related condition that causes painful swelling of the breast. Doctors say the condition disappears when steroid use is stopped. Francis said that he was not aware of it.

Futerman also speculated that Johnson might not have realized the difference in human growth hormone, which was not a banned substance when he first used it in 1984, and injectable steroids that he used later, such as furazabol and Dianabol, because all were a milky white color.

Francis said that he believes Johnson realized the nature of the drugs he used at all times.

Futerman’s intent was not entirely clear when he asked Francis whether the physical therapist his athletes used, Matuszewski, could have sabotaged Johnson’s drug test in Seoul.

“I really don’t know,” Francis said. “It’s difficult for me to say this happened or that happened. I really didn’t know, and I don’t know at this point. I know (Johnson) wasn’t using the substance he tested positive for. I don’t know where it came from.”