Griffith-Joyner Calls Her Accuser a ‘Lunatic’

Florence Griffith Joyner, accused by Darrell Robinson of buying growth hormones from him, today called the sprinter “a compulsive, crazy, lying, lunatic.”

“I don’t do drugs,” Griffith Joyner said. “I never have taken any drugs. I don’t believe in them. It’s a false accusation.”

Robinson detailed his dealings with the 1988 Olympic heroine and other track and field athletes and coaches, including Carl Lewis, in the West German magazine Stern. (Story, Part III, Page 8.) Robinson repeated the charges today on NBC-TV’s “Today” show.

Griffith Joyner, accompanied by her husband Al Joyner, the 1984 Olympic triple jump champion, and business manager Gordon Baskin, flew from her California home to New York for the early morning show in hopes of meeting her accuser. But Robinson failed to show up. However, the two confronted each other via a hookup from his Toronto home, and the rhetoric was bitter.

Robinson said Griffith-Joyner had asked him to get growth hormones for her, because “I have connections,” and said she paid him $2,000 in 20 $100 bills.

Griffith-Joyner said: “Darrell, you are a compulsive, crazy, lying, lunatic.”

Robinson, the 1986 national 400-meter champion, responded: “The truth will come out.”

“How can you have the nerve . . . to tell a false lie?” Griffith Joyner said angrily.

“She says she didn’t take them (drugs),” Robinson said. “It’s my word against hers.”

“You admitted taking drugs and why do you want to implicate other athletes?” Griffith Joyner said.

Robinson, who reportedly received at least $25,000 for the magazine story, which was published today, and money for appearing on the TV show, insisted he was “not doing it just for the money.”

“The money issue isn’t an issue,” he said. “I am sick and tired of hearing everyone saying they’re clean.”

“I have known Darrell for many years,” Griffith-Joyner said earlier in an interview with the Associated Press. “He’s never been to my house and I’ve never been to his, but we have talked a lot on the track. There have been a lot of rumors that he has been a compulsive liar all these years, that he makes up stories.

“I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. Now, he’s turned it around. He’s trying to damage the reputation of a lot of athletes because he hasn’t been successful.”