Ben Johnson Won’t Fight Lifetime Ban, Retires

While maintaining his innocence, Ben Johnson chose to retire from competition rather than attempt what promised to be a lengthy and expensive appeal of the lifetime ban imposed on him by the International Amateur Athletic Federation for failing a second drug test.

At a London news conference Sunday, Johnson’s lawyers read a statement signed by Johnson, 31, who was not present.

“I have had a long career in track,” the statement read. “I experienced success and failure. I said after the Seoul Olympics that I would come back and compete clean. I know that I did.”

Johnson was banned for life Friday by the IAAF after its doping commission ruled that a sample of his urine, taken at a Jan. 17 meet at Montreal, had unacceptably high levels of testosterone, an indication of steroid use.

Johnson was stripped of his Olympic gold medal and world record after winning the 100-meter dash at the 1988 Seoul Games when he tested positive for steroids.

Carl Lewis, Johnson’s longtime rival, said once he heard Johnson wanted to challenge him in a series of match races, he suspected Johnson would probably not be able to stay clean, according to a British newspaper.

“He was usually running 100 meters in about 10.4 seconds,” Lewis told the Mail, a London tabloid. “In Barcelona that would not even get him through the rounds and into the final.

“So how did he plan on getting so much faster in so little time? Was he going to cheat again?”