Columnist Dean Juipe: FloJo's death has potential to enlighten

AS THE CABLE network A&E pointed out earlier this week during its biography of Satan, people make deals with the devil every day. The short-term benefits can be phenomenal.

Yet eventually -- at least in theory -- there is a price to be paid. It's said the devil always collects his due.

In all probability, Florence Griffith Joyner didn't see herself as conspiring with evil forces and she almost certainly didn't deal directly with Lucifer when presented with the option of taking performance-enhancing drugs. But, by seemingly all accounts, the temptation was too great to resist.

Her counterparts in track and field believed she was using an outlawed substance of some kind, such as steroids.

Monday her penance came due. FloJo, once the fastest woman in the world, died in her sleep at the age of 38 at her home in Mission Viejo, Calif., the result of a heart seizure. An autopsy that may shed further light on her death is pending.

"It was a common belief in the track world that Florence had used drugs," said another renowned sprinter, Carl Lewis, in his autobiography.

Griffith Joyner went from being fast at the age of 24 (in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics) to being extremely fast by the age of 28 (in the 1988 Seoul Olympics). Along the way, her body changed dramatically.

Her thighs and legs became very, very muscular.

The payoff was two world records and three gold medals at Seoul. The world records -- in the 100 meters and the 200 meters -- not only still stand, they almost seem untouchable. Consider: FloJo's 100-meter best of 10.49 is .11 better than anything run since, and her 21.34 in the 200 meters is .28 better than the next-best time in the past 10 years.

In spite of the suspicions, it's only fair to point out that Griffith Joyner never failed a drug test. Yet no other American runner in history has been so strongly suspected of steroid use.

And while it hasn't been established that performance-enhancing drug use can lead to long-term health problems, there is some evidence of it causing liver and heart damage. (The problem from a diagnostic standpoint stems from the lack of subjects who have admitted using hormonal supplements or drugs; FloJo's situation would be applicable if someone -- like her husband, former Olympian Al Joyner -- would come forward and say they saw her ingesting the drugs back in the '80s.)

Performance-enhancing drugs remain rampant throughout sports, with virtually every football player on creatine and home-run hitters like Mark McGwire swearing by the benefits of androstenedione. What the athletes rarely take into consideration are the possible side effects, 10 or 20 years down the road.

Here's where FloJo's death could add to her legacy. A wonderful athlete and a dynamic personality, she may have passed away as the result of a risk she accepted 15 years ago. If it could be established her death -- which came as a shock to her family, including a 7-year-old daughter -- was brought on by drug use, it would serve as the ultimate warning to younger athletes facing similar temptations.

As FloJo seems to have proved, two well-worn adages have their merits.

You can run, but you can't hide. And yes, speed sometimes kills.

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