Who is Charlie Francis?

He was Ben Johnson's coach. Beats me if he knows what he's doing, but from reading his book he basically goes out and says "drug use is allright because everyones using them.".....

sjm1368 wrote:

He was Ben Johnson's coach. Beats me if he knows what he's doing, but from reading his book he basically goes out and says "drug use is allright because everyones using them.".....

I used to try that with my parents. They didn't buy it either.

I knew Charlie Francis as a young school boy hanging around the track in Toronto with his father in the early 60s. He became a Canadian National class sprinter and I believe he made the Olympic Team and also went to Stanford.. He went on to be a famous coach in Canada and was known internationally. He did coach Ben Johnson amoung others.

sjm1368 wrote:

He was Ben Johnson's coach. Beats me if he knows what he's doing, but from reading his book he basically goes out and says "drug use is allright because everyones using them.".....

Not making any excuses for bad behavior here, but back then (Eastern Bloc countries and US sprinters--you know who you are!), everyone WAS.

I don't think everyone was. I firmly believe that some of the sprinters in that Era were clean. Anyways from the book, it sounded like he knew his stuff, but still wouldn't trust a guy who let his athletes do all sorts of performance enhancing drugs.

I think you're right on not everyone in the sport. I was talking about the absolute highest level, which I do believe, since it would have been almost necessary in order to be there.

I went to highschool with a Charlie Francis. I didnt know he was that popular.

Charlie Francis is the man who mentored John Smith of HSI during the early to mid 80's. John spent a couple of years in Toronto with the Mazda Racing team under Charlie's supervision working with Ben, Desi, Mark McCoy et al.

I used to do a couple of track workouts per week in the winter at the York University indoor track in the early '80's. Francis would be there with his crew and they made it difficult for every other runner using the complex. He acted as if they were the only athletes who had any right to be there. I?ll never forget the complete arrogance they portrayed and frankly was happy when they were found to be such cheats. I was under the belief that Francis was banned from coaching in track for life. I hope that this is so.

Monty

maybe that's why he's "coaching" from his web site.

I only know Charlie Francis from his web site. However, he's very knowledgeable and gets very involved in the topics posted on his site. He's always quick to volunteer advice and has some excellent resources available.

Hello everyone,

Rather than speculate, why not take a trip over to CharlieFrancis.com and check out the discussion forum there. Charlie's group has quietly made a name for itself as being THE SOURCE for technical training. Other sites/forums fail by comparison. You be the judge.

See you there!

SubZERO

Read the book "Speed Trap," he was a "co-author" and it describes his role in Ben Johnson's development. It is interesting from many perspectives. I personally found a lot of the "facts" in the book hard to believe. He apparently did have some good technical knowledge as a sprint coach.

The book should give you some insight into the personal qualities of this man. I finished the book thinking that he must have been a highly arrogant and unethical individual.

Early in the book he describes his own drug-free athletic career, and his personal best at 100 meters. I found it particularly amusing when he later describes what times he thought were the limit of human performance WITHOUT drugs. Yup, pretty much exactly the times that he ran......

Charlie was banned by Athletics Canada as a recognized National team coach. He has however worked with a number of the world's best sprinters as a consultant post-Ben. In fact, he has attended many of the recent Olympic and World championship games as a paid consultant to a number of medallists since the 1988 scandal. Although his ethics are terrible, his technical skills and program planning remain recognized as one of the best in the world and people are still willing to work with him regardless of his past. Scary but true. The athletes that he coaches domestically are subject to an intense testing schedule by Sport Canada but after what Canada went through with Ben, who can blame them for wanted to be sure?

The bottom line in my opinion is that despite the fact Big Ben tested positive he still ran amazingly fast and was technically an awesome sprinter. His start was revolutionary and the best in the world. The drugs definetly made him faster but he would still have been a top notch athlete with out them, probably more like a 9.9 runner instead of a 9.79 runner (some would argue closer to 9.75).

Ben actually eased into the finish on that run. Some say it was a 9.6 if he hadn't eased up.

Forest Grump wrote:

He has a web site for sprinters. Didn't he coach Ben Johnson? That seems to make him credible, but does anyone know if his training methods are good? bad?

Duh! He is the forward/guard for the Houston Rockets. I don't know if he ever coacheed a Ben Johnson. He's pretty good so he probably trains alright. Also, the presence of Yao Ming should open up the lane somewhat.

That's Steve Francis you numbnuts.