Tapes Apparently Reveal Johnson Knew That He Took Steroid

Fearing he would take the fall if Ben Johnson tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, Dr. Jamie Astaphan secretly taped a telephone conversation that seems to prove that the sprinter knew he took an anabolic steroid.

In front of a hushed hearing room filled almost to capacity Thursday, the Canadian government’s commission of inquiry into drug use by athletes introduced tapes of four separate conversations that Astaphan had on Jan. 27, 1988, with sprinters Johnson and Angella Taylor Issajenko of Canada, Pierfrancesco Pavoni of Italy and their coach, Charlie Francis.

The tapes were of uneven quality, but it was clear that the four persons who were recorded had acknowledged to Astaphan that they were aware of their connection with steroids. While Pavoni has not appeared before the commission, Francis and Issajenko admitted as much, and more, in earlier testimony.

But the revelation is damaging to Johnson, who has maintained since testing positive for a steroid, stanozolol, last September at the Seoul Olympics that he never “knowingly” used a banned substance.

During the inquiry’s track and field phase, which will end its 13th week today, Johnson’s attorney, Ed Futerman, has attempted to portray his client as an unsophisticated innocent who was manipulated by Francis and Astaphan.

After hearing Astaphan’s tapes, Futerman acted unimpressed.

“Come back tomorrow,” he said sarcastically. “We’ll be showing home movies.”

He also indicated that he will continue with the same line of defense, which could be crucial to Johnson’s future in track and field. Although Johnson was banned from competing for two years by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs the sport, Canada’s sports minister, Jean Charest, ruled that he can never again represent the country in a major competition.

But Charest also said he might reconsider pending a recommendation from the commission. Believed to be one of the factors in his ultimate decision is whether Johnson knew he was taking steroids.

There appears to be little doubt of that after Thursday’s development. The commission’s co-counsel, Robert P. Armstrong, instructed that a tape of a conversation between Astaphan and Johnson be played:

Astaphan: One of your muscles looked tight.

Johnson: Not really. I was just tired and stuff.

Astaphan: You haven’t used any of the white stuff, the steroid, since December?

Johnson: Part of it, yeah.

Astaphan: When did you do it?

Johnson: A long time ago.

Astaphan: Charlie hasn’t given you any steroid shots by mistake?

Johnson: No.

Astaphan: Do you have more left in the bottle?

Johnson: Yes.

The tapes were played near the end of the second day of testimony by Astaphan, who has been the personal physician for Johnson and other Canadian athletes since 1983, despite moving his practice in 1986 to his native Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

Astaphan, 43, has not been shy about discussing his expertise in the subject of performance-enhancing drugs, claiming that he supervised steroid programs for 14 Canadian track and field athletes and was consulted by 32 world-class track and field athletes from more than 12 other countries, including five from the United States. He did not reveal names.

He also boasted that he can beat drug tests by using substances that either have not been banned or are undetectable. He said there are seven masking agents available by prescription in Canada that are not on the banned list.

Although he admitted he instructed the athletes he treated to use a steroid, furazabol, less than a month before they left for Seoul, he distanced himself from Johnson’s positive test for stanozolol. Astaphan testified that he had not prescribed that steroid for Johnson in more than three years.

Armstrong repeatedly challenged him on that point, but Astaphan contended that Johnson might have received the stanozolol from other sources. He noted three occasions on which he discovered Johnson to have drugs that he did not obtain from the doctor.

Astaphan said he warned Johnson during the 1987 World Championships at Rome that he might test positive if he continued to experiment with drugs not recommended to him by the doctor.

Astaphan said that Johnson replied: “Yeah, but you and Charlie would take the rap.”

When he learned from Pavoni in January of 1988 that other Canadian athletes planned a similar defense if they were caught, Astaphan said he decided to protect himself by taping conversations about steroids.

“I decided that before I got too deep in the swamp and up to my waist in alligators, I was going to go get a tape recorder and cover my tail,” he said.

In the taped conversation with Francis, Astaphan complained that Johnson had a selective memory about his steroid use.

“Sometimes you wonder what he remembers and what he wants to remember,” Astaphan told Francis.

Asked to elaborate Thursday, Astaphan said: “At that point in time, Ben had gotten his priorities a little bit screwed up. He got to the stage when he almost felt he was infallible or invincible and could do what he wanted.”

That concern was justified eight months later, when Johnson tested positive for stanozolol at Seoul.

Early in the morning of Sept. 27, when Johnson forfeited the gold medal he had won in the 100 meters three days earlier, Astaphan said he asked the sprinter if he had taken any pink pills. Stanozolol is contained in pink pills known by the brand name of Winstrol.

“He said ‘Umm,’ which I took to mean no,” Astaphan said.

Later Astaphan said he was confronted by the Canadian Olympic team’s chief medical officer, Bill Stanish.

“He said, ‘Jamie, that boy’s lying to you,’ ” Astaphan said. “I said, ‘I know.’ He had a sheepish look, as though he had done something and he was sorry.”