Seoul Searching: 2015 Leaf Legends of Sport Ben Johnson autographs

By Ryan Cracknell | Hobby Editor

I’ve never given much thought as to whether I wanted Ben Johnson cards to immortalize the sprinter. Now that they’re here in the form of autographs in 2015 Leaf Legends of Sport, I’m still not sure. Even in disgrace, he’s an important part of both Olympic and Canadian sports history. And for that reason, cards seem appropriate. I’m just not sure if it’s something I want in my personal collection as it still stings more than 25 years later.

Growing up in Canada in the 1980s, Ben Johnson was a big deal. For a time, he was a hero. Setting the world record for the 100-metre race in 1987 vaulted him to the same category as Wayne Gretzky. To me, even bigger. They were both athletes who were the undisputed leaders in their respective sports. The title “Fastest Man on the Planet” made him something closer to god-like.

Then came the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

9.79.

Not only did Johnson win the gold, he broke his own world record. And in a sport measured in hundredths of a second, it wasn’t even close. Carl Lewis was way back. Ben Johnson was still the human incarnation of the Flash — for two more days.

With the Internet still years away and 24-cable news a luxury in my neck of the woods, headlines traveled much slower in 1988. But I still remember standing stunned in the living room as a news broadcast interrupted whatever it was that I was watching.

The gold medal was gone. The world record erased. He was a cheater. Ben Johnson was a disgrace.

Many steroid scandals have hit the Olympics and other sports in the years since, but this one stung my patriotic side. It still does. Even with the accusations that surrounded racing at the time, Johnson is the one who got caught. His cheating is fact, everything else just rumor.

It’s strange. I had no problem picking up the dual autograph that Leaf did of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in 2013 Pop Century. In fact, I think it’s an interesting card given history.

But with the two different Ben Johnson cards in 2015 Leaf Legends of Sport, I’m not so sure of.

The Kerrigan-Harding dual autograph distances itself from that scandal. It simply presents the two figure skaters on the same card. The connection is made but indirectly. The Johnson cards are different.

The first is in the Medal Graphs portion of the release. Dedicated to Olympians, this one’s a reminder of everything and in a big way. It hurts, but it’s impossible to erase the fact that Ben Johnson was in Seoul in the summer of 1988. If I were to get a Johnson card from Legends of Sport, this would be it.

The second one, National Pride, is harder for me. I remember feeling a ton of pride back in 1988. Even though I wasn’t even the fastest kid in my class, I liked to think that Johnson made every Canadian a little swifter on their feet. I was nine and the imagination was strong. Pride wasn’t what I was feeling when the news cut in and nine-year-old me was left standing speechless and lead-footed in front of the old wooden console TV.

National Pride is a common insert in a lot of Leaf’s sets. It’s simply meant to note what part of the world an athlete is from. It’s the “pride” part that’s tougher for me to handle in this instance. Johnson might be proud of his country.

And a lot of time has past.

But am I ready to add a card that has Johnson, the Canadian flag and the word “pride” to my collection? The historian in me is okay with the idea but I’m not sure the patriotic side is ready yet.