Scorecard

Ben Again

The news last week that sprinter Ben Johnson had again tested positive for a banned substance—testosterone this time—was numbing and sad. So was what followed: The IAAF's doping commission voted to ban Johnson from the sport for life. Johnson, whose positive sample came from a Jan. 17 indoor meet in Montreal, said he won't appeal the suspension.

Since January 1991, when he returned from his two-year ban for having tested positive for steroids at the '88 Olympics in Seoul, Johnson had run no better than 10.16 seconds for 100 meters—a time that placed him 22nd on the world list for '92—and last summer he failed to make the 100 final at the Barcelona Games. Johnson, 31, who at his peak was virtually unbeatable and enjoyed six-figure paydays, had become an also-ran. That status changed, however, on the indoor circuit this winter. Last month in Grenoble, France, he ran 5.65 for 50 meters, only .04 off his own world record. Then came the results of the Montreal test.

Perhaps the best measure of how much drugs boosted Johnson's performance comes from Carl Lewis's coach, Tom Tellez. Two years ago Tellez noted that, while Lewis still had room to improve, he could never match the 9.79 Johnson ran in Seoul. If Lewis—the most gifted sprinter of our time—cannot run that fast, what chance do other runners have?

Track and field athletes often see themselves in an adversarial relationship with the spoil's drug-testing system. That must change. The athletes have to acknowledge that drug use leaves the next generation with a terrible choice: Either settle for a lower level of performance or use drugs to attain a higher one. That choice ruined Johnson.

Hollow Victories

America's best downhill racer, AJ Kitt, can't get a break this season. In Aspen last Saturday, International Ski Federation (FIS) safety officials pulled the winner's podium out from under him for the second time in three months by stopping a World Cup race only minutes after Kitt had blistered the Ruthie's Run course to lead the other 14 top-seeded skiers by a whopping .83 of a second.

The officials said they had halted the downhill because a dangerous rut had developed on the course. When FIS announced it would reset the course and start the race anew two hours later, Kitt and several other racers refused to compete, arguing that the dangerousness of that spot had been pointed out to officials many times during the week and that FIS had done nothing about it. Citing softening snow, FIS then canceled the race.

The snake-bitten Kitt, whose best finish this season is a third, was also denied victory at the World Cup downhill in Val d'Is�re, France, on Dec. 4. There, with Kitt a near-certain winner after 23 racers had skied, the event was canceled because of high winds, fog and heavy snow, depriving him not only of a win but of $30,000 in prize money as well. "The Val d'Is�re decision was legitimate," said Kitt in Aspen. "But here, we had almost a perfect day."

Kitt received some consolation in Aspen when the race organizers decided to award full cash prizes to the three "medalists" in spite of the cancellation. Kitt put his $30,000 first-place check to good use, announcing that he would sponsor 10 young racers with the Aspen Ski Club for a season and that he would buy 10 kegs of beer for "the hundreds and hundreds of people who worked for free" to make the Aspen races a success.