SIDELINES : Ben Johnson Doctor Charged

Sprinter Ben Johnson’s former personal physician and another Toronto doctor accused of giving steroids to Canadian athletes were charged today by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons with professional misconduct.

Dr. Jamie Astaphan, Johnson’s doctor until the 1988 Seoul Olympics scandal, and Dr. Ara Artinian face the possibility of having their licenses revoked and fines up to $10,000, college spokesman Linda Franklin said.

“Our investigations have been under way since the Seoul Games,” Franklin said, adding that the college had decided to delay the charges until after the release of the Dubin report.

The report, the product of a federal inquiry into drug use in Canadian sports, was released Tuesday.

Johnson was stripped of a gold medal and a world record at the Games after traces of banned anabolic steroids were found in his urine.

At last year’s federal inquiry sparked by the scandal, Astaphan admitted before Justice Charles Dubin that he administered a complex regimen of the muscle-building drugs to the sprinter and several other Canadian athletes.

Artinian also admitted that he gave several Canadian athletes steroids, although he said he prescribed the drugs only to counteract a range of ailments, including irritability and hives.

Franklin, a spokeswoman for the college, which licenses doctors in Ontario, said the college carried out its own investigation, which was completed about one month ago.