Ben Johnson contends that like Marion Jones and himself, all elite athletes take steroids

Disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson says every elite athlete takes steroids or PEDs.  Johnson -- always looking for the excuse -- gave an interview to Al Jezeera, as reported in the Canadian Press.

Johnson ran a record 9.79 seconds to win the 100-metre gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, then tested positive for the steroid stanozolol and was stripped of his medal and time.

"I expected it," the Toronto sprinter said of Jones, who admitted last week that she was using banned substances when she won five Olympic medals at the 2000 Sydney Games.

"But again I believe that everyone on the international level is using performance-enhancing drugs and, you know, it's widespread and it's going to continue on," the Canadian said in a radio interview with Al-Jazeera. "A lot more people (are) going to be also coming forward."

However Johnson thinks that drug tests will catch more athletes (which is not substantiated by the available data).  Maybe, those tests would have caught Carl Lewis spiking Johnson's beer with winny?

Johnson said current athletes will have a harder time covering up their illegal activities.

"The tests will be more powerful, and these people that are trying to mask this information, they're going to have problems," he said.

As well reported last week, Jones admitted to the Feds she used an anabolic steroid, then lied to investigators.  Although everyone is pontificating on how 'cheaters will be caught', note that Jones passed years of anti-doping testing without triggering a positive, until she beat an EPO charge last year.

Johnson may be right about the elite athletes using steroids to cheat history and their competitors.  After all, most of the sprinters at the famous 1988 Seoul 100M where Johnson doped his way to a win, were later exposed as drug cheats.