Hate the Participant: The Ben Johnson Story revisits one of the vital scrutinized moments in Canadian sport, this time with a really totally different tone. As reported by CBC, the six-episode sequence makes use of a mockumentary format, utilizing satire as an alternative of a proper retelling.
In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson had simply run the race that outlined his profession, successful gold and setting a world report within the 100m remaining in Seoul. Three days later, he examined constructive for the banned steroid stanozolol, was stripped of his medal, and his consequence was disqualified. The aftermath led to the Dubin Inquiry in 1989, which uncovered widespread doping amongst Canadian athletes.
A unique method of telling it
The sequence shifts the attitude because it appears again at Johnson’s life and profession. Johnson supported the concept of telling the story by way of comedy. “I feel what occurred to my profession was a joke to me,” he instructed CBC. “It was simply the suitable match to place it again in a unique perspective.
Shamier Anderson, who performs Johnson, mentioned the story additionally exhibits how shortly public notion modified, with Johnson transferring from being embraced to being pushed apart in a matter of days. Anderson has a private connection to the story as effectively. “I grew up in Scarborough, the place Ben skilled, the place his identify nonetheless echoes,” he mentioned. “He was a hometown legend. Sure, sophisticated, but in addition somebody folks rooted for.”
Greater than the race
The sequence doesn’t comply with a easy timeline, studies The Globe and Mail. It strikes forwards and backwards by way of Johnson’s life, mixing exaggerated moments with extra grounded ones. That strategy permits for various interpretations of how issues unfolded, slightly than making an attempt to decide on one model of occasions. It’s reportedly “impressed by intensive analysis carried out by Canadian creator and journalist, Mary Ormsby,” whose e book World’s Quickest Man: The Unimaginable Lifetime of Ben Johnson, was printed in 2024. (It was reviewed within the July/August 2024 challenge of Canadian Working.)
Anderson, who additionally serves as an govt producer of the present by way of his firm Bay Mills Studios, has mentioned the challenge goes past the race itself. It appears on the folks round Johnson, his upbringing and the best way his story has been instructed over time. The sequence is written by BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated author Anthony Q. Farrell, whose credit additionally embrace The Workplace and Run the Burbs.
“Based mostly on the historical past of different athletes doing the identical factor, it was simply the suitable match to place it again in a unique perspective to inform this nice story in a comedy format so folks can get pleasure from it and be ok with themselves and be stunned with a number of the issues that they noticed on this,” Johnson says.
Hate the Participant: The Ben Johnson Story is streaming now in Canada on Paramount+.
