And you thought the 1988 Seoul Olympics were over!

Sports Illustrated: Ben Johnson: Carl Lewis set me up in Seoul

Call it the modified Marion Berry defense...

Disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson has claimed superstar rival Carl Lewis played a part in a conspiracy to sabotage his drug sample at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, costing him his 100 meters gold medal.

Johnson set a world record of 9.79 seconds to win the 100 meters at Seoul but was stripped of his gold medal and world record when he tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.

The Canadian-born sprinter has since admitted using banned drugs but has continued to insist his positive test at Seoul was the result of a conspiracy to discredit him.

"I have the information on how it was done and why it was done this way and who was behind it," Johnson told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper in a Dec. 1 interview.

Asked whether Lewis was involved, Johnson said: "I won't say too much but . . . he's involved."

Johnson has claimed he drank beer with a former U.S. football player in the drug test waiting room at Seoul, that the footballer was "a family friend" of Carl Lewis and that his beer had been tainted with stanozolol.

"I've been speaking to my lawyer and he wants to keep it as low (key) as possible until next June. We're trying to get some information, try to get that guy (the footballer) to speak," Johnson told the Herald Sun.

Due to time constraints, we now move to further action.

Johnson's disqualification in Seoul led to Lewis being awarded the gold medal and the world record for his time of 9.92 seconds.

Johnson made similar conspiracy allegations in an interview with an Australian television network in October. He admitted he had been a long-time user of performance-enhancing drugs but said stanozolol was not one of the drugs he had been using.

"Number one, that day the drugs that they find in my system was not the drugs that I was using," he said.

"Number two, Ben Johnson was sabotaged in Seoul. Somebody set me up.

"I'm not denying at all that I was taking drugs but that's the drugs that I was using that they claiming.

"Drugs was in sports long before Ben Johnson came on board and drugs will be there long after Ben Johnson is gone."

You are gone, Ben. You simply have not noticed yet.