Ben Johnson’s Next Big Test : Track and field: IAAF will examine results that reportedly show runner used illegal drugs again. He could be banned for life.

Ben Johnson could become a two-time loser in track and field’s drug war Friday, when the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s doping commission meets to examine the results of a test administered in January to the Canadian sprinter.

The IAAF announcement Wednesday that the five members of the doping commission have been summoned to Paris for a special session was the first official confirmation that Johnson’s test is under scrutiny.

Based on information obtained from three anonymous sources, the Toronto Star reported Wednesday that Johnson again is suspected of using illegal, performance-enhancing substances because of the high levels of the male hormone testosterone discovered in his urine sample during testing.

If the commission rules that his test was positive, Johnson, 31, is subject to a lifetime ban for a second offense. In track and field’s most celebrated drug bust, he was suspended for two years when he tested positive for an anabolic steroid after winning the 100 meters in the 1988 Summer Olympics at Seoul.

Johnson was unavailable Wednesday for comment, but the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch, which represents him, released a statement that said:

“Neither Mr. Johnson nor his representatives have been notified of any positive test. . . . Mr. Johnson denies taking any prohibited substance or engaging in any improper practice since his return to competition.”

In the first two years after his reinstatement in 1990, Johnson did not come close to regaining the strength or form that enabled him to run the 100 at Seoul in 9.79 seconds, a world-record time that he forfeited--along with his gold medal--after his positive drug test.

Johnson’s best time since has been 10.16. He failed to earn a berth in the 100 on the Canadian team for the 1991 World Championships at Tokyo, where Carl Lewis set the existing world record of 9.86, and did not advance beyond the semifinals in the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona.

But during a January news conference, Johnson predicted: “I’m ready to do something this year. I’m going to shock the world again one more time.”

The revelations in the Toronto Star on Wednesday presumably were not what he had in mind, but neither were they considered particularly shocking.

Earlier this year, an Italian newspaper published a photograph of a shirtless, chiseled Johnson and a headline that read: “Big Ben, Whose Muscles Make Us Afraid.”

On Feb. 7 at Grenoble, France, Johnson ran 50 meters in 5.65 seconds, the best time of the indoor season and only 0.04 seconds off the world record. He won the 60 meters three days later at Ghent, Belgium, in a more modest 6.60, complaining of a sore hamstring.

After working out for a few days at a track near his suburban Toronto home, he declared himself fit for the indoor national championships at Winnipeg, where Canada’s team for the March 12-14 World Championships at Toronto was selected. But he left Winnipeg on the same day he arrived, citing the hamstring injury.

The suddenness of his departure, however, led to speculation that something else was amiss.

“I knew he was guilty,” said Tony Campbell, a Culver City agent who has worked on various deals with Johnson. “Last summer, he was saying, ‘I’ll be back next year. . . .’ I said, ‘C’mon, you can’t do it clean.’ He didn’t say anything. But when he almost broke the world record this year in the 50, the handwriting was on the wall.

“The ego part got involved. He was getting beat. The only way he could get back in the spotlight was with the drugs.”