BEN JOHNSON has a room in his 51 million house in a Toronto suburb where he hangs a painting portraying three fallen idols: Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and James Dean. It is called the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

It is a street Johnson has walked down once or twice. But today the Canadian, the most famous cheat in sports history, will appear in court in Brampton for the chance to live his dream once more.

Big Bad Ben claims that the life ban imposed by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) four years ago after he tested positive for drugs for the second time is unfair and says that he should be given the opportunity to compete again.

His legal team will argue that it is against natural justice. "Even most murderers don't serve that long," said his lawyer, Morris Chrobotek.

"I want to prove to everyone how fast Ben Johnson can run, the disgraced sprinter said. Then people will have the chance to say, `He's done it and he was clean when he did it'. I want that chance so I can retire happy."

The timing of the court action coincides with the 150 metres, world's fastest-man race between Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson in Toronto on Sunday.

Bailey, like Ben Johnson a Jamaican-born Canadian who won the Olympic 100 metres title in Atlanta last summer with a world record performance, has said his compatriot should not be allowed to run again.

Stripped of his Olympic gold medal in Seoul in 1988 after winning the 100 metres in a world record 9.79 seconds when he tested positive for anabolic steroids, Johnson returned to the track after serving a two-year ban. But he was kicked out for good in 1993 when he again tested positive, this time for excessive testosterone.

Johnson initially denied any drug use after Seoul. But several months later, when testifying before the Dub in inquiry established to study the whole problem of doping in athletics he admitted he had lied, saying he was confused by all the pressure.

The second time, he maintains he was framed. "When I came back the establishment still wanted me out, so they set me up," he said. "I was tested three times in five days in Canada. The first and third tests were clean, but the middle one showed me over the testosterone limit. That couldn't happen - if I had been positive it would have shown in all three tests.

"I have been singled out. I am the rug athletics wipes its feet on. So many athletes have been caught using drugs and what is to say they are different to me? Yet when it comes to a drugs matter, people always refer to me and what happened to me. All I want now is to be able to get on with my life, working the job I know."

Johnson denies his motivation for coming back is financial. The millions he earned before he was banned have bought the expensively-furnished house he shares with his mother and sisters.

"I am not doing all this for the money," he said. "If I'm cleared I won't be contacting the first promoter I can find to see how much they will pay me to run in their meeting. I will take everything in time and this season would become one of preparation. Then next year, I will be back. I want to show people I can run quick."

Johnson no longer needs to shade his eyes, which sometimes used to turn an eerie yellow, the tell-tale sign of the use of anabolic steroids. The strength which distinguished him from all the other drag-racers of athletics is still there as the result of daily four-hour workouts at Toronto's York University. He claims he has run close to 10 seconds for the 100 metres in training. But, like that day in Seoul nine years ago when he crushed the finest field of sprinters ever assembled, that is surely too good to be true - especially as Johnson is now 35, an age when most sprinters are thinking of swapping their spikes for carpet slippers.

It seems the only regrets Johnson has about Seoul is the fact he got caught. "I still look upon that time as the world record," he said. "People are desperate to beat it and they want to say, `I did it clean, not like Ben Johnson'. But they can't. There is no way anyone can do it legally."

Johnson remains bitter about his treatment. "I look around and see the amount of athletes who have been banned since me and I know I was victimised. I know what is going on with the other sprinters." Indeed, if Johnson's allegations about his rivals in that Seoul race were to be reprinted it would keep a team of lawyers busy for months.

Most people will regard this latest attempt at a comeback as another exercise in cynicism which further harms the reputation of athletics. Ben Johnson does not care.

"People will point and shout and scream and say, `There he is: Ben Johnson. We know what he did'. It will probably happen for the rest of my life, but I just want the chance to go back on to the track and close the athletics chapter on my life properly."