Ben Johnson Net Worth

What Is Ben Johnson's Net Worth?

Ben Johnson is a Jamaican-born Canadian former sprinter and athletic coach who has a net worth of $2 million.

Ben Johnson became one of the most famous athletes in the world during the 1980s through his fierce rivalry with Carl Lewis. After winning two bronze medals at the 1984 Olympics and three medals at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, Johnson defeated Lewis in the 100 meters at the 1987 World Championships in a then-world-record 9.83 seconds. A year later, he produced the defining performance of his career at the Seoul Olympics, exploding from the starting blocks and winning the 100-meter final in 9.79 seconds. His Olympic title lasted only 62 hours. Johnson tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol, was stripped of the gold medal, and had the world record erased. He later admitted during Canada's Dubin Inquiry that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his career. At his commercial peak, Johnson was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and had signed a multimillion-dollar shoe contract, but the scandal wiped out most of his endorsement business almost immediately. He attempted a comeback, competed at the 1992 Olympics, and was ultimately banned for life following another failed drug test in 1993.

Peak Earnings and Endorsements

Before the Seoul scandal, Ben Johnson had become one of the highest-paid track athletes in the world.

Contemporary reporting in 1988 put his annual income at roughly $500,000, driven largely by appearance fees and international endorsements. He had lucrative advertising agreements in Japan and worked with companies including Mazda, Toshiba, Kyodo Oil, Timex, Purolator, and various food and consumer-product brands.

His largest deal was with Italian sportswear company Diadora. In February 1988, Johnson signed a five-year sponsorship contract worth $2.5 million, one of the largest individual endorsement agreements in track-and-field history at the time.

The financial upside from winning the Seoul Olympics was expected to be enormous. Immediately after Johnson crossed the line in 9.79 seconds, agents and sports officials projected that his Olympic victory could generate millions of dollars in additional endorsements over the following four years.

That opportunity vanished almost overnight.

After his positive drug test became public, companies began canceling advertisements and terminating contracts. Diadora ended its relationship with Johnson, Japanese companies removed commercials featuring him, and other potential endorsement opportunities disappeared.

The scandal therefore cost Johnson substantially more than a gold medal. It effectively destroyed what could have been the most lucrative period of his career.

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Early Life

Benjamin Sinclair Johnson Jr. was born on December 30, 1961, in Falmouth, Jamaica.

In 1976, Johnson moved to Canada with his mother, Gloria, and several of his siblings. His father remained in Jamaica. The transition was difficult. Johnson was a quiet teenager who struggled with a pronounced stutter and adapting to a new country. Athletics eventually gave him an outlet. At approximately 15 years old, Johnson joined a Toronto-area track club and began working with coach Charlie Francis, a former Canadian sprint champion and Olympian. Francis immediately recognized Johnson's extraordinary acceleration and strength. The partnership would shape nearly every stage of Johnson's competitive career and eventually become central to the controversy surrounding it.

Rise Through Canadian Track

Johnson began attracting international attention during the early 1980s. At the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, he won silver medals in both the 100 meters and Canada's 4×100-meter relay.

He competed at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki in 1983 and represented Canada at the Pan American Games that year.

Johnson's first Olympic medals came at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. He won bronze in the 100 meters behind Carl Lewis and Sam Graddy with a time of 10.22 seconds. He added a second bronze as part of Canada's 4×100-meter relay team alongside Tony Sharpe, Desai Williams, and Sterling Hinds.

Lewis dominated the Los Angeles Olympics, winning four gold medals and emerging as track and field's biggest international star. Johnson increasingly became his most serious rival.

Rivalry With Carl Lewis

The rivalry between Johnson and Lewis became one of the defining sports stories of the 1980s. Lewis possessed exceptional top-end speed and a long, fluid stride. Johnson was extraordinarily powerful out of the blocks and could create separation almost immediately. By the middle of the decade, Johnson was regularly defeating Lewis.

At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Johnson won gold medals in the 100 meters and 4×100 relay and a bronze in the 200 meters.

His greatest pre-Olympic victory came at the 1987 World Championships in Rome. Johnson blasted through the 100 meters in 9.83 seconds, defeating Lewis by a significant margin and breaking the existing world record by one-tenth of a second. The performance made Johnson an international celebrity. He was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, received Canada's Lou Marsh Trophy, and became a Member of the Order of Canada.

His 9.83 record would later be invalidated after Johnson acknowledged using banned performance-enhancing drugs during the period in which it was set.

1988 Seoul Olympics

The anticipated rematch between Johnson and Lewis at the 1988 Seoul Olympics was marketed as one of the biggest events of the Games.

The 100-meter final took place on September 24.

Johnson produced one of the most visually dominant sprint performances ever seen. He accelerated away from the field almost immediately and crossed the finish line in 9.79 seconds, raising his right arm before reaching the line.

Lewis finished second in 9.92 seconds. Johnson had apparently broken his own world record and become the first Canadian since Percy Williams in 1928 to win the Olympic men's 100 meters.

His celebration did not last.

A urine sample taken after the race tested positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. The result was confirmed by a second sample. Johnson was disqualified, stripped of his gold medal, and removed from the record books. Lewis was elevated to Olympic champion. Johnson's reign as Olympic 100-meter champion had lasted 62 hours.

The Dubin Inquiry

The scandal became a national crisis in Canada. The Canadian government created the Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices Intended to Increase Athletic Performance. The investigation became widely known as the Dubin Inquiry after commissioner Charles Dubin. The hearings exposed widespread performance-enhancing drug use within portions of Canadian athletics.

Johnson testified publicly in June 1989. Under oath, he acknowledged that he had used steroids during his career and admitted that his previous denials had been false.

His coach, Charlie Francis, also provided extensive testimony about the drug program used by members of his training group.

Johnson's admission resulted in his 1987 World Championship title and 9.83-second record being invalidated. Johnson has nevertheless continued to dispute one important aspect of Seoul. He has maintained that he did not knowingly take stanozolol before the Olympic final and has alleged that his drink was tampered with in the doping-control area. Those claims never overturned the official finding, and the 1988 result remains disqualified.

Financial Fallout

Johnson's sudden fall from the top of international sports had immediate financial consequences.

Before Seoul, he had already spent some of his new wealth conspicuously. His vehicles included a Porsche valued at $108,000 and a limited-edition Ferrari Testarossa that cost $257,000.

Johnson was also building an elaborate Victorian-style home for himself and his mother in Markham, Ontario.

Construction stalled after the Olympic scandal, and Johnson eventually sold the property. Contemporary reporting said he made approximately $300,000 on the real estate transaction.

His financial situation became much more difficult during the following decade. By 1998, Johnson was living with his mother in Newmarket, Ontario, and earning only modest amounts through appearances and other work. He later said that he had used the Ferrari as collateral for a loan to help make a mortgage payment and ultimately lost the car.

The contrast was dramatic. Ten years earlier, Johnson had been a millionaire with multinational sponsors and one of the richest endorsement contracts ever given to a sprinter.

Comeback

Johnson received a two-year suspension following the Seoul Olympics.

When the ban expired, promoters discovered that public interest in him had not disappeared. His early comeback appearances in Europe reportedly paid as much as $30,000 per race, and he collected more than $300,000 in appearance fees during his first several meets after returning.

Johnson attempted to rebuild his competitive career and qualified for Canada's team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

He advanced to the semifinals of the 100 meters but stumbled coming out of the blocks and finished last in his heat. He also participated in Canada's 4×100-meter relay effort, which ended with a disqualification in the semifinal round.

The Barcelona Games would be his final Olympics.

1993 Drug Test and Lifetime Ban

Johnson's attempted comeback collapsed in 1993.

After winning a 50-meter race in France early that year, he submitted another drug sample at an indoor meet in Montreal. Testing showed an abnormally high testosterone level.

Because it was treated as a second doping offense, track and field's international governing body imposed a lifetime ban.

Johnson fought the punishment for years.

In 1999, a Canadian adjudicator determined that procedural errors had occurred in the handling of the case and allowed him to pursue reinstatement domestically. Johnson even ran alone against the clock at a Canadian meet.

The international federation ultimately rejected his petition for reinstatement later that year, leaving the lifetime suspension in place internationally.

Training Diego Maradona

After his competitive career ended, Johnson turned some of his attention to coaching and personal training.

In 1997, he was hired to help Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona prepare for a comeback.

Johnson reportedly earned $1,000 per day during the training assignment. Maradona worked with him at York University in Toronto as he attempted to regain his fitness for a return to Boca Juniors.

The pairing inevitably attracted attention because both athletes had experienced highly publicized drug suspensions during their careers.

A few years later, Johnson was hired to train Al-Saadi Gaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, as he pursued a professional soccer career.

Coaching and Later Career

Johnson continued working with athletes after leaving elite sprint competition.

His coaching has focused on sprint mechanics, acceleration, strength, conditioning, and explosiveness. His clients have included soccer and hockey players as well as track athletes.

Among his highest-profile later clients was Canadian hockey star P.K. Subban. Johnson worked with Subban during multiple NHL offseasons to improve speed, agility, and conditioning.

He has also made paid appearances, spoken publicly about his career, and remained a recognizable figure internationally.

In 2005, Johnson attempted to launch a clothing and supplement business called the Ben Johnson Collection.

He self-published his autobiography, "Seoul to Soul," in 2010. The book presented Johnson's version of the events surrounding Seoul and his continuing belief that the positive stanozolol result involved sabotage.

Legacy

Few athletes have experienced a rise and fall as dramatic as Ben Johnson.

For several years, he appeared capable of redefining what was physically possible in the 100 meters. His 9.79-second run in Seoul was not officially matched until Maurice Greene ran the same time more than a decade later, although Johnson's performance had long since been erased from the record books.

A generation later, Usain Bolt pushed the official world record to 9.58 seconds.

Johnson's story also had consequences extending far beyond one athlete. The scandal prompted one of the most extensive public investigations of doping ever conducted in international sport and helped force governing bodies, governments, coaches, and athletes to confront the prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs.

The official record of Johnson's career therefore looks very different from the one spectators witnessed. His recognized personal best in the 100 meters is 9.95 seconds, recorded in 1986, rather than either of the faster performances that once made him the world-record holder.

Personal Life

Johnson has remained closely connected to the Toronto area since immigrating to Canada as a teenager.

His mother, Gloria, was one of the central figures in his life and remained a major source of support throughout the aftermath of the Seoul scandal. She died from cancer in 2004.

Johnson has a daughter and grandchildren and has generally maintained a quieter personal life since his competitive career ended.

He has continued training himself while working as an athletic coach and consultant, drawing on the sprinting and strength techniques he developed during his years as one of the world's fastest athletes.

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