document: St. Martin 's , 306 pp. , $ 18.95 ; CHARLIE Francis , testifying in 1988 in Toronto at a federal inquiry about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports , seemed a mad scientist , something on the order of Dr. Frankenstein . Francis , the Canadian national sprint coach , knew the polysyllabic names and complex characteristics of steroids -- furazabol , stanozolol , Dianabol -- as if they were members of his family . And although he spoke of his athletes as if they were family members , too , he made it plain , under oath , that he had given them every steroid combination imaginable , his experiments all carefully calibrated , charted and analyzed. ; His system had worked remarkably . On Sept. 24 , 1988 , Francis ' most famous pupil , Ben Johnson , who immigrated to Toronto from Jamaica as a scrawny 14-year-old , ran 100 meters in 9.79 seconds at the Olympics in Seoul , South Korea . The time was a world record and gave Johnson the gold medal , ahead of the defending champion , U.S. star Carl Lewis. ; But the Francis system , like all systems , was not foolproof . `` About 42 hours after my life 's greatest moment , '' Francis writes on the first page of his confessional , `` Speed Trap , '' his `` nightmare began . '' ; Johnson , the world 's fastest man , had tested positive for illegal steroid use . Suddenly he was the world 's fastest cheat . Millions of dollars worth of endorsements shriveled up . His gold medal was revoked , and his world record was , too. ; Because Johnson was caught , the Canadians were embarrassed . Because they were embarrassed , they conducted a federal inquiry . Because they held an inquiry , Francis had to testify . And because of that testimony , we have `` Speed Trap , '' an elaboration of what Francis said at the inquiry and a history of his remarkable path through the world of track and field. ; He argues , essentially , that to be a world-class sprinter , you must use steroids -- he makes this argument even as Johnson attempts a comeback for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona , Spain , without them. ; Steroids do not make a runner run faster , Francis explains , but they enable a runner to train harder . The desire for speed comes with incredible costs , and they are the trap . By encouraging his athletes to use steroids -- and Francis maintains that they all wanted to do so and knew about steroids before the coach brought the subject up -- Francis argues that he is simply helping to create a level playing field. ; We learn that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is nothing new in the world of sports -- that cocaine and arsenic and codeine were used by athletes in the 1896 Olympic Games . We learn that Johnson harmed his own world-record times by raising his hand jubilantly as he approached the finish line . We learn that if athletes take steroids on their own , independent of an official -LRB- but still illicit , of course -RRB- program , it 's called `` free-lancing . '' That 's one of Francis ' theories for why Johnson got caught. ; But , Francis says , there is no logical reason for Johnson to have been caught . After all , he had never been caught before . No one of Johnson 's standing had been caught before . Francis offers theories for the positive test result -- free-lancing , sabotage , a screw-up by the team doctor -- but there is no clear answer. ; For all its candor , answers and revelations are not forthcoming in `` Speed Trap . '' Francis , without naming names , convinces us that steroid usage is rampant , but he tells us what that means to him only in a technical sense . The book lacks a strong sense of character development . It does not take any moral stand ; it lacks passion . How did Francis feel violating the rules ? What drove him ? What did he really feel toward Johnson ? ; After a two-year ban , Johnson is running again without Francis ' coaching . The early word is that he is still extremely fast , probably one of the fastest men in the world -- but no longer the fastest . Francis would have us believe that without steroids , Johnson can not be the fastest . -LRB- Johnson disagrees . -RRB- ; At the end of `` Speed Trap , '' Francis says that steroids can not be simply banned -- their use is too prevalent , they can be disguised too easily and they work too well . The dangers have been exaggerated , Francis says . People who want running to be a `` natural '' sport are naive . `` We ceased being natural ages ago , the moment we stopped running barefoot on dirt paths , '' Francis writes . `` It is a formidable challenge to distinguish between nature and artifice , a task I would leave to the philosophers . '' ; But `` Speed Trap '' left me wishing Francis had at least tried his hand at philosophy . Is n't that everyone 's responsibility ? To ask why we do the things we do ? `` But I was a sprint coach , and I had a different job , '' he concludes . `` To help a few gifted people run as fast as they could . '' ; They ran fast , all right . But he never seems to have asked himself : Is it worth it ? -LRB- box -RRB-
extractive_keyphrases: ben johnson charlie francis federal inquiry steroid combination world record illegal steroid use steroids toronto canadian national sprint coach gold medal
abstractive_keyphrases: performance-enhancing drugs