COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Picture it. Seoul 1988. Ben Johnson just set the world record in the men’s 100 meter dash to win gold, only to have that medal stripped away for a failed drug test.

Today, former Ohio State volleyball player Mary Ormsby has written a book looking on that case, and she said Johnson’s story still resonates today.

“It was a race for the ages. Four men ran under 10 seconds. I think that was the first time ever in history,” Ormsby said.

It was one of the most memorable moments of the Seoul 1988 Olympics, and it turned into one of the biggest scandals in sports history.

“A phone call about 4:30 in the morning on the Tuesday in Seoul,” Ormsby recalled. “My boss from home said, ‘Get out and find Ben Johnson. It’s moved on the wire that he’s failed his drug test. Go get him.'”

Ormsby covered Johnson at the 1988 Summer Games for the Toronto Star. The sprinter tested positive for steroids and was stripped of his gold medal, the world record of 9.79 wiped away from history.

Now 36 years later, Ormsby says Johnson’s story deserves a second look.

“I wonder if he was deprived or denied of due process in his hearing which is the crux of the book,” Ormsby said.

The former Buckeye reexamined the Canadian sprinter’s case in a new book “World’s Fastest Man: The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson,” writing that Johnson didn’t get a fair hearing and was singled out.

“Is it possible to railroad a guilty man? And at that hearing, first of all, he was excluded from his hearing,” Ormsby said. “And very quickly the Canadians didn’t bother to look at his actual drug test. None of the supporting documents. So they didn’t look at that drug test at all. They just assumed the science was trustworthy, unassailable, and it may have been but they didn’t test it or challenge it. They just accepted it.”

Ormsby said Johnson’s case is worth revisiting as doping continues to impact sport at the highest level. A recent New York Times report found that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for a banned substance.

“Athletes and the public have to have faith in a system that has integrity and right now, there’s no trust,” Ormsby said. “What kind of performances are we seeing out there?”