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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at into History.com. It's September 24th, 1988 at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. On the track, 27-year-old American athlete Carl Lewis

bounces up and down, warming up for the flagship event of the Olympic Games,

the final of the men's 100 meters.

Four years ago, Carl won gold in this event at the Los Angeles Olympics.

But since then, a new rival has emerged.

Canadian Ben Johnson is the current world champion and world record

holder and most analysts think that he's the only athlete capable of taking the

Olympic title from Carl and now it's all down to the result of this one race.

The announcer calls for quiet and the runners take their positions.

Carl puts his feet in the starting blocks, sets himself,

and waits for the pistol shot that will begin the race. Carl explodes out of the

blocks, pumping his legs to try to reach top speed as quickly as possible.

But out of the corner of his eye, he can see that Ben Johnson is already a stride ahead.

Carl keeps running with as much effort as he can muster, but the gap only increases.

With 10 meters to go, Ben lifts his right arm and points to the sky, signaling that he is number

one.

Carl crosses the finish line just behind him.

He could do no more, but his best is only good enough for second place.

With a new world record time of 9.79 seconds, it's Ben Johnson, who's the new Olympic

...