The note was typically brief. It said, "Fine. Enjoyed the Olympics." Charlie Francis sent me that email in early March after I had inquired about his health.

I had emailed the renowned sprint coach just before Christmas about a story I was looking into. At that time, his wife told me he was undergoing treatment for a disease he'd been diagnosed with several years before. Cancer I assumed. I left him to his private battle.

Learning of his death at the age of 61 on Wednesday brought back memories of a relationship over 10 years in the making.

I first got in contact with Francis just after the Sydney Olympics when I was digging into doping in sports. Even though he'd been banned for life from coaching after the Ben Johnson scandal, I figured he'd still be plugged in and he was.

Not only to the thriving underworld of those who bent or broke the rules but he was also intimately connected to the sport of track itself.

He knew or seemed to know the doping protocols of some of the world's best and best-known athletes. He often emailed me with information that was tantalizingly believable but extremely difficult to prove.

But also and forever, Charlie studied the mysteries of running fast. He gave seminars, handed out advice to athletes and other coaches...even tried to get away with coaching only to be caught - notoriously working with American star Marion Jones in Toronto seven years ago.

Her sponsors forced an end to that arrangement. At the time, Francis said he'd come to reject the necessity of performance enhancing drugs.

Jones of course became embroiled in her own doping nightmare with the aid of Victor Conte. Conte replaced Francis as the supposed diabolical genius behind a new generation of scandalized sprint stars. They were rivals, then collaborators on "Project World Record," their successful effort to transform Jones' ex-husband Tim Montgomery into the world's fastest man.

Upon hearing of Francis's death, Conte told me: "I have worked with many elite coaches and trainers over the last 25 years. In my opinion, Charlie was one of the best track coaches in history." Others in the track world would second that.

I tried on more than one occasion to convince Francis to do an on-camera interview about what he knew and how he felt about his exile from the sport in which he competed for Canada at the Olympic Games then played a key role in the country's unhappiest Olympic memory.

He always politely but firmly declined. Now his race is run and Charlie Francis takes many secrets and a vast knowledge with him.