That is bullshit, and the Ben Johnson comment shows major lack of understanding of both high level track racing and strength training for competition. This is straight from the horse's (Charlie Francis) mouth:
Charlie had Ben cut from 2X6X600 down to 2 sets of 2-3 during maintenance, which is the normal situation, as I mentioned above. Charlie did (and does) have people do a maximum BENCH 3-4 DAYS before competition--the idea here is to achieve a CNS stimulation while still allowing the leg muscles to recover. But Charlie (and everybody else) has people going to maintenance 5-8 WEEKS before major competition.
Sprints or distance, you CANNOT do heavy weights 5-10 minutes before ANY race because you cannot have access to the facilities. Weight loads are simply cut significantly for competition. If you read Coe/Martin about Coe's weights, you will also see this.