Lewis firmly denied the charges and countered by proving before a judge that the magazine that had published the stories did so without foundation to their claims. He also participated in drug test after drug test to prove he was clean. An opponent of steroid use, Lewis was never linked to drug use by anything but rumor. It would take the formula of Lewis' further commitment to the sport and his love for competition to lift some of the suspicion from track events and stop the erosion of support that the Olympics began to suffer after Seoul. With his continued hard work and honest participation in sprinting and the long jump, he proved to the world that the Olympic spirit was not dead.