Florence Griffith-Joyner

It was at the 1988 Summer Olympics where the men's 100-meter gold medalist, Ben Johnson, was busted for steroid use. We couldn't have been that blind to drug use.

 

Consider the following:

FloJo's 1988 WRs:
10.49 for 100, 21.34 for 200

Second fastest all-time: Marion Jones, 1998 (both at altitude)
10.65 for 100, 21.62

 

exhume her ass and test her

10 times dirtier than bonds

she was injecting herself with an entire walgreen's on a daily basis

i believe the IAAF actually has an asterisk next to her world records -- they list them as "questionable with high liklihood of substance irregularities" or something

 

Yes, we should make a habit of digging up the dead to see if they used drugs. Let's go dig up Jim Thorpe. I'm sure he used. How about Jess Owens?

Jesus. That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard, and I think she doped.

 

Salon, 1998. Interesting story.

http://www.salon.com/news/1998/12/cov_04newsa.html

(btw, I believe I am the lone 'clean' vote in the poll, only because I don't want to think Jackie and Bobby were ever into steroids. Maybe Bobby, never Jackie. They were devastated when they found out Florence was leaving Bobby's stable....so if she did something wrong, I want to think it was because the Kersees were clean...)

 

I think Stone was kidding.

 

sorry, i wasn't serious

 

Very interesting. I'd never heard about the homicide investigation before.

 

This was before the Olympics. And it's safe to say that in 1988, as journalists, we didn't have the knee-jerk reaction we have now that a great performance, at least in particular sports, should immediately bring to mind drug cheat.

 

That's not the case. Those who followed track (and swimming, weightlifting, etc.) were by then well aware of steroid use, especially by women, thanks to the East Germans and Soviets, who made it a major part of their Olympic development program. Go and check how many records were set by Soviet-bloc women in the '80s. Many of those marks -- 400, 800, 100 hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put, discus -- still stand, and some have not even been challenged. So when FloJo went off (four 100s of 10.70 or faster in '88), there were certainly eyebrows raised. And after Johnson was caught, there were plenty of questions asked. Maybe it wasn't the hysteria we tend to have now (sometimes), but it was not ignored at the time.

Of course, later, when she died, all sorts of alarms went off.

BTW, just from observation and the numbers, I'd be shocked if she wasn't juiced.

 

They all juice. We only ridicule the ones who get caught.

 

Amen!