Saw Johnson Use Steroids, Olympian Sharpe Says

TORONTO — Olympic bronze medalist Tony Sharpe said today he saw teammate Ben Johnson shot up with steroids.

Sharpe, now retired because of injuries, told a federal inquiry into drugs in amateur sport that he and Johnson took steroids together while at a training camp on the island of Guadeloupe in the spring of 1984.

That summer, Sharpe and Johnson were part of Canada’s 400-meter relay team that won a bronze medal at the Los Angeles Olympics.

Sharpe told the inquiry that he witnessed teammate Angella Taylor Issajenko inject Johnson with the drugs at an apartment she rented on the island. He also said he injected Issajenko--Canada’s top woman sprinter--with drugs he helped sneak past customs at the island airport.

Discussed With Coach

Sharpe said he began taking steroids in 1981 after first discussing the drugs with Charlie Francis, the now-suspended national sprint coach.

The Jamaica native and current resident of Toronto said he first came into contact with the drugs in 1980 while a student at Clemson University.

“It was my belief all along--all my career--that to compete at the very best levels it would take some help, which meant steroids,” Sharpe said.

Sharpe said he took the drugs intermittently during his career, which ended in 1987.

He said that toward the end of his career he, Johnson and others began to worry the cheating would be discovered.

“He (Johnson) was concerned about people knowing . . . why we were going to Charlie’s apartment (to receive steroids),” Sharpe said.

Francis told the inquiry last month that Johnson, Sharpe and sprinter Desai Williams began taking the banned drugs on his advice in 1981.