MJ was a freak at high school and college and when he went into t&f as a pro he was known for his mind blowing work ethic..other world class athletes marvelled at his almost unfathomed heart and determination and ability to be able to run dozens of fast one lappers in a session. he also had a strong will and his dedication to diet and detail was also unsurpassed.
the problem is/was that although his reign occurred well and truly before the designer roids scandal, he was indirectly linked to balco and the maurice green camp- which the latter has admitted to using the clear.
still, his performances werent that surprising given his youth and junior prowess. he may look "large" but like the others, these guys weigh a buck fiddy and its because they are so lean that they appear heavily muscled.
the so called great Ben Johnson weighed 72kg (160lb) at his peak- at 5'10".
in order to understand t&f drug usage, you need to know the history of it along with the drug testing regimes and key indicators before making an opinion on whether or not they used at all.
in MJs case, its hard to say yes or no, so go with no.
the one currently under suspicion who ticks all the boxes is carmelita jeter. Just today Jamaica's steve mullings ran 9.80 at the prefontaine meet. he ran a 9.90 earlier this year and has been outside of the top echelon of sprinting until now. he's 28 years old which is getting on the old side for PBs...big ones at that. MJ set his PBs at an older age but ran loads of top times close to that earlier in his career. Not so with mullings, however mullings was still running classy times whilst always appearing "fat" in athletics terms, and apparently was a lazy trainer- just going on pure talent- he was a freak junior.
jeter- like flo-jo, was always so-so..and now is running flo-jo times and has gone from being a feminine athlete to a muscular she-male..
of course, those who are ignorant will accuse me of being naive..but thats because they dont know the testing regimes and the types of tests they do. essentially they make it very difficult to cheat..partly because they store samples for 10 years and reserve the right to retro test those at any time.
its taken 30 years to counter the effect of systematic drug use in t&f and we are now seeing where modern athletes are really at.
I have met MJ on many occasions, and during his peak he was a beast. About 185 at 5'11 and shredded to the bone...huge chest and arms for a sprinter, and just dense (not like drummond or greene...they were bloofy as gh15 would say) I know my track and field too, worked with clyde hart, tommy smith, etc...
MJ was indeed a freak, but as I have gotten older, I've just come to the conclusion that its hard to believe he wasn't on something. He was never linked to the balco camp though, don't know where you heard that. He was training in Texas when all those other guys were in LA with HSI. Those guys (greene, drummond, boldon) were all using Balco products for sure.
I did a few of Hart's workouts (hitting the cones on quarters at specific times)... holy crap. I can't imagine doing those in the humidity of waco like MJ did...
Id love to believe that MJ was clean... but between the 95 season (when he did the 200/400 double at the worlds) and the 96 season he gained about 25lbs of muscle, lowered his pb in the 200 from 19.79 to 19.66 (broke pietro's 19.72), and then 6 weeks later went and ran that ridiculous 19.32 (I really wish he'd had any competition in the 400, he'd could've run a 42.9 or lower for sure). In 99, after being injured, getting old, and about 15 lbs lighter than he was in 96-98, he ran a 43.9 in the semi at the worlds (where he essentially walked the last 20m) and then in the finals ran the 43.18 about a full second ahead of anyone else. Too bad he didn't have a prime butch reynolds pushing him.
