How it unfolded
Ben Johnson, who had already beaten Lewis at the 1987 Rome World Championships, settled the race with an explosive start inside the first 30 metres. He crossed the line with his right index finger raised 15 metres out, clocking 9.79, breaking his own world record again. Lewis was second in an American record 9.92, with Linford Christie third in 9.97 and Calvin Smith fourth in 9.99. Three days later, a stanozolol positive turned up in Johnson's sample. In the early hours of September 27, his medal was stripped; gold went to Lewis, silver to Christie and bronze to Smith, and Johnson's 1987 world record was also erased. Canada's Dubin Inquiry later found Johnson and coach Charlie Francis had used performance-enhancing drugs systematically since 1981. Over the following years, most of the eight men in that final were connected in some way to banned substances, and the race came to be known as 'the dirtiest race in history.'
Why it still matters
This was the moment, broadcast live worldwide, that revealed doping was not an isolated aberration but a structural condition of elite sprinting. It triggered two decades of institutional change, from expanded out-of-competition testing to the 1999 founding of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and it made public suspicion of every subsequent athletics record permanent.