CHRONOLOGY

TORONTO — Significant dates leading to Ben Johnson’s first day of testimony today in the Canadian government’s inquiry into drug use by athletes:

Sept. 24, 1988--Johnson runs the 100 meter final in 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Olympics to break his world record and win the gold medal.

Sept. 27--The International Olympic Committee announces that Johnson tested positive for an anabolic steroid, stanozolol, after the 100-meter final and strips him of his gold medal, also voiding his new world record.

Oct. 4--In a chaotic news conference at Toronto, Johnson says: “I trained for 13 years for the Olympics to watch my hard work disappear in a second. I have never, ever knowingly taken illegal drugs, and I would never embarrass my family, my friends, my country and the kids who love me.”

Jan. 11, 1989-- Testimony begins before commissioner Charles L. Dubin, associate chief justice of Ontario, in the Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices Intended to Increase Athletic Performance.

March 1--On the second day of testimony in the track and field phase of the inquiry, Johnson’s coach, Charlie Francis, says that he began administering a steroid program for the sprinter in 1981. He says that he transferred supervision of the program in the fall of 1984 to Dr. Jamie Astaphan.

March 6--Francis testifies that Johnson was injected with a steroid 22 days before the final at Seoul, but the coach says that to his knowledge the sprinter had not used stanozolol since the spring of 1987. If he is correct, traces of the stanozolol would have disappeared from Johnson’s system long before he arrived at Seoul.

March 16--Sprinter Angella Taylor Issajenko, one of Johnson’s teammates on the club coached by Francis, testifies that she believes the drug given to Johnson and other Canadian athletes, including herself, by Astaphan was stanozolol, although she says the doctor told them it was a different steroid. She also says that she submitted 12 bottles of the drug given to her by Astaphan to the commission.

May 1--A representative of Sterling Drug Ltd., which manufactures Winstrol V, a veterinary preparation that contains stanozolol, testifies that Astaphan bought 65 bottles of Winstrol V tablets and 68 vials of the injectable form of the drug between June, 1985 and December, 1987.

May 10--A chemical analysis of the substance contained in the 12 bottles given to the commission by Issajenko reveals that it is Winstrol V.

May 24--Astaphan testifies that he gave Johnson between 50 and 60 injections, many of them containing steroids, between 1984 and 1988. But the doctor says he never gave stanozolol to Johnson or any other athletes after 1985. He says he bought the Winstrol V for a friend on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts who treats animals and suggests that Johnson received the stanozolol from other sources.

May 25--The commission hears an audio tape of a telephone conversation between Johnson and Astaphan that was secretly recorded by the doctor on Jan. 27, 1988. It seems to substantiate earlier testimony by Francis, Issajenko and Astaphan that Johnson knew he was using steroids.