A TV ad for a gambling company that features disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson making light of doping has sparked outrage in Australia, with politicians and sports officials demanding it be pulled from the air. The Sportsbet ad has Canadian Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his 100 metres gold medal in the 1988 Seoul Games after testing positive to a banned steroid, promoting a “juiced-up” mobile phone app. “It tested positive for speed and power again and again,” says Johnson in the ad, which includes other doping-related puns and muscular athletes touting the app. “To use a known drug cheat such as Ben Johnson to advertise their product is utterly inappropriate,” local media quoted Hunt as saying on Monday. This is naht cool https://t.co/mUmxnomBON — Mack Horton (@_mackhorton) May 14, 2017Outspoken Australian swimmer Mack Horton, who sparked controversy at the Rio Olympics by calling a Chinese rival a “drug cheat”, was also disapproving.

Source: Hindustan Times May 15, 2017 10:30 UTC