Multiple Olympic gold medal-winning athlete Michael Johnson discussed on Tuesday (9th August) the International Olympic Committee (IOC), doping, Usain Bolt and the Rio Games' men's 400 metres.

Script: SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Johnson, Former Olympic champion (on the issue of Russian athletes being booed):

"We got a situation here. Obviously that, it needs a resolution, and my hope is that all of this activity, the Russian athletes being booed, nobody wants athletes to be booed at the Olympic Games. That's not what this is about. But the simple answer to that is not to tell people to stop booing the athletes. The answer to that is to figure out how to keep athletes who have been doping out of the Olympics and out of the sport, and handing down appropriate punishment. Then, people won't be booing athletes who are here that they feel like they shouldn't be here."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Johnson, Former Olympic champion (on IOC President Thomas Bach looking to apply an Olympic ban on athletes with serious drug sanctions):

"I think that, that would be a step in the right direction, I would love to see him (IOC President Thomas Bach) go a step further and say that with even one player with one doping offence that you miss an Olympics. I think that, that is, that would be sending the right message."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Johnson, Former Olympic champion (on whether Justin Gatlin should be in Rio de Janeiro):

"Well the thing is, what you have to look at is the rules. The rules allow him (Justin Gatlin) to be on the team so it's not about Justin. You know, it's about the rules. And so you know, if I were making the rules, no one who's cheated would be on the team, they wouldn't be at the Olympics, and you wouldn't be allowed to compete at the Olympics. You would serve your time, at least a four-year ban, and you would miss an Olympics and then you're free to come back and try again if you want to [...] you're not going to solve the problem by pointing the finger at an athlete and making that athlete the villain."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Johnson, Former Olympic champion (on the 400 metres race in Rio):

"Absolutely. I think the 400 (metres) is going to be one of the most exciting races of the athletics, for sure. And possibly one of the most exciting events during the entire games, where you have the defending Olympic champion (Kirani James from Grenada), the defending world champion (Wayde van Niekerk from South Africa) and the 2008 Olympic champion (LaShawn Merritt of USA)."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Johnson, Former Olympic champion (on Rio Olympics being Usain Rio Bolt's swansong):

"Usain (Bolt) is one of those athletes that when he's healthy, as long as he is healthy, he's better than everyone else and barring any other sort of issues, then he wins."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Johnson, Former Olympic champion (on whether Usain Bolt is a better athlete than he is):

"Absolutely not, no, of course not. He's (Usain Bolt) close, he's close. He comes close, he comes close. He'll tell you that."