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Carl Lewis

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             Medal record
                Center
   Carl Lewis
           Men's athletics
            Olympic Games
    Gold  1984 Los Angeles   100 m
    Gold  1984 Los Angeles   200 m
    Gold  1984 Los Angeles  4x100 m
    Gold  1984 Los Angeles Long jump
    Gold     1988 Seoul      100 m
    Gold     1988 Seoul    Long jump
    Gold   1992 Barcelona   4x100 m
    Gold   1992 Barcelona  Long jump
    Gold    1996 Atlanta   Long jump
   Silver    1988 Seoul      200 m
         World Championships
    Gold   1983 Helsinki     100 m
    Gold   1983 Helsinki    4x100 m
    Gold   1983 Helsinki   Long jump
    Gold     1987 Rome       100 m
    Gold     1987 Rome      4x100 m
    Gold     1987 Rome     Long jump
    Gold     1991 Tokyo      100 m
    Gold     1991 Tokyo     4x100 m
   Silver    1991 Tokyo    Long jump
   Bronze  1993 Stuttgart    200 m

   Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is a retired
   American track and field athlete who won 10 Olympic medals including 9
   golds, and 10 World Championships medals, of which 8 were golds, in a
   career that spanned from 1979 when he first achieved a world ranking to
   1996 when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. He
   currently lives in Los Angeles and is pursuing an acting career.

   Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long-jumper who topped the world
   rankings in the 100 m, 200 m and long jump events frequently from 1981
   to the early 1990s, was named Athlete of the Year by Track and Field
   News in 1982, 1983 and 1984, and set world records in the 100 m, 4 x
   100 m and 4 x 200 m relays. His 65 consecutive victories in the long
   jump achieved over a span of 10 years is one of the sport’s longest
   undefeated streaks.

   His lifetime accomplishments have led to numerous accolades, including
   being voted "Sportsman of the Century" by the International Olympic
   Committee and being named "Olympian of the Century" by the American
   sports magazine Sports Illustrated. He also helped transform track and
   field from its nominal amateur status to its current professional
   status, thus enabling athletes to have more lucrative and
   longer-lasting careers.

   Despite his impressive athletic achievements, the American public
   didn't easily warm to him owing to the perception that he was aloof and
   egotistical. His self-congratulatory conduct and lack of humility also
   made him unpopular with many other track stars.

Youth

   Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Lewis grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey,
   near Philadelphia. His parents moved there in 1963 after Lewis’ mother
   said “she couldn’t take it anymore” after seeing her husband on
   television, being hosed down by police during a civil rights
   demonstration in Birmingham. Growing up in Willingboro was “like a
   storybook experience” said Lewis of life in the quiet and racially
   diverse town.

   From an early age, track was a central part of Lewis’ life. His parents
   William McKinley Lewis Jr. and Evelyn Lawler, both teachers, started
   the Willingboro Track Club for girls, as there were no track programs
   for girls in the public schools. They would place Carl with younger
   sister Carol in the long jump pit to play when they did not have a
   babysitter. The club soon allowed boys, and that is where Lewis started
   his track career.

   Lewis wasn’t initially a promising athlete, self-described as being the
   “runt” of the family, his elder brothers and sister showing more
   initial athletic prowess. Despite this initial lack of promise, Lewis’
   parents continued to encourage their son to set goals and try to
   achieve them. Jesse Owens was an early role model, as Lewis’ father
   would often tell stories of him and speak highly of the former track
   star. When Lewis was about nine, he met Owens at a youth track meet,
   where Owens advised Lewis to “have fun.”

Athletic career

Emergence as a competitive athlete

   At age 13, Lewis started to compete in the long jump. While attending
   Willingboro High School, Lewis grew out of his “runt” stage and emerged
   as a promising athlete. As a junior, he was one of the top long jumpers
   in New Jersey. By his senior year, he was emerging as one of the top
   long jumpers in the world. Numerous colleges were soon actively
   recruiting him, and he eventually decided to enroll at the University
   of Houston where Tom Tellez was coach. Tellez would remain Lewis’ coach
   for his entire career. Days after graduating from high school in 1979,
   Lewis broke the high school long jump record with a leap of 8.13 m (26
   ft 8 in).

   Lewis immediately let it be known that he intended to make a living off
   of his athletic abilities, even though track and field was nominally an
   amateur sport. Upon meeting Tellez for the first time after arriving at
   the University of Houston in the fall of 1979, Lewis said “I want to be
   a millionaire and I don’t ever want a real job!” At year’s end, Lewis
   achieved his first world ranking as tabulated by Track and Field News,
   an American publication and self-described “Bible of the Sport.” He was
   5th in the world in the long jump. (All subsequent ranking references
   are according to Track and Field News)

   Lewis qualified for the American team for the 1980 Olympics in the long
   jump and as a member of the 4 x 100 m relay team. Though his focus was
   on the long jump, he was now starting to emerge as a sprint talent. The
   Olympic boycott meant that Lewis did not compete in Moscow. At year’s
   end, Lewis was ranked 6th in the world in the long jump and 7th in the
   100 m.

Breakthrough in 1981 and 1982

   In 1981, Lewis started to emerge as a dominant sprinter and long
   jumper. From this year until 1992, Lewis would top the 100 m ranking
   six times (seven if Ben Johnson's 1987 top ranking is ignored), and
   rank no lower than third. His dominance in the long jump would be even
   greater, as he’d top the rankings nine times during the same period,
   and rank second in the other years. He won his first of six National
   Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles for the University of
   Houston and won his first national titles in the 100 m and long jump.
   Since it was exceedingly rare for an athlete to compete in both a track
   and a field event and to dominate both, comparisons started to be made
   to Jesse Owens, who had famously dominated sprint and long jump events
   in the 1930s.

   At the start of 1981, Lewis’ best legal long jump was his high school
   record from 1979. On June 20, Lewis improved his personal best by
   almost half a metre by leaping 8.62 m (28 ft 3 in) at the TAC
   Championships while still a teenager. Lewis had vaulted himself to
   being the number two long jumper in history, behind only Bob Beamon,
   and holder of the low-altitude record.

   While marks set at the thinner air of high altitude are eligible for
   world records, some purists feel that there is some “taint” to the
   assistance that altitude gives to athletes. Some feel altitude records
   should be discarded the same way records with an aiding wind over 2 m/s
   are. The advantage is chiefly in sprinting and jumping events, as the
   benefits of lower air resistance are offset by the relative lack of
   oxygen when longer distances are involved. Lewis was determined to set
   his records at sea level venues to avoid the taint of “assisted”
   records. In response to a question about him skipping a 1982 long jump
   competition at altitude, he said, “I want the record and I plan to get
   it, but not at altitude. I don’t want that ‘(A)’ [for altitude] after
   the mark.” When he was gaining prominence in the early 1980s, all the
   extant men’s sprint records and the long jump record had been set at
   the high altitude of Mexico City.

   In the 100 m, Lewis became the fastest sprinter in the world in 1981.
   His relatively modest best from 1979 (10.67 s) improved to a
   world-class 10.21 the next year. But 1981 saw him run 10.00 s at the
   Southwest Conference Championships in Dallas on May 16, a time that was
   the third-fastest in history and stood as the low-altitude record. For
   the first time, Lewis was ranked number one in the world, in both the
   100 m and the long jump. Additionally, he won the James E. Sullivan
   Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. His loss to
   Larry Myricks at the TAC Indoor Championships in February would stand
   as his last loss in the long jump for more than a decade.

   In 1982, Lewis continued his dominance, and for the first time, it
   seemed someone might challenge Bob Beamon’s world record of 8.90 m in
   the long jump set at the 1968 Olympics, a mark often described as one
   of the greatest athletic achievements ever. Before Lewis, 28 ft [8.53
   m] had been exceeded on two occasions by two people: Beamon and 1980
   Olympic champion Lutz Dombrowski. During 1982, Lewis cleared 8.53 m
   five times outdoors, twice more indoors, going as far as 8.76 m (28 ft
   9 in) at Indianapolis on July 24. He also ran 10.00 s in the 100 m, the
   world’s fastest time, matching his low-altitude record from 1981.
   [ibid, p. 20] He achieved his 10.00 s clocking the same weekend he
   leapt 8.61 m twice, and the day he recorded his new low-altitude record
   8.76 m at Indianapolis, he had three fouls with his toe barely over the
   board, two of which seemed to exceed Beamon’s record, the third which
   several observers said reached 30 ft (about 9.15 m).

   He repeated his number one ranking in the 100 m and long jump, and
   would add a number six rank in the 200 m. Additionally, he was named
   Athlete of the Year by Track and Field News. By the end of 1982, Lewis
   was recognized as a superstar in the sport but had yet to compete in a
   major international competition. He would get that chance the next
   year.

1983 and the inaugural World Championships

   For the first time, the International Association of Athletics
   Federations (IAAF), the governing body of track and field, organized a
   World Championships, an event which would prove to be one of the
   biggest sporting events of the year worldwide. The championships
   boasted a record number of participating countries for a sporting event
   (154), more than even the Olympics which had been plagued by
   politically motivated boycotts in its two previous celebrations and
   which would suffer another one in 1984. Lewis’ emergence as a star in
   track and field couldn’t have been better timed, as this was a huge new
   venue to showcase his talents to the world. Further, though he missed
   the experience of competing at the 1980 Olympics owing to the American
   boycott, he would get an opportunity to gain the experience of a
   near-equivalent sporting event via the Championships, all the better to
   learn to handle the pressure of an Olympic Games.

   At the World Championships, Lewis’ chief rival in the long jump was
   predicted to be the man who last beat him: Larry Myricks. But though
   Myricks had joined Lewis in surpassing 28 feet [8.53 m] the year
   before, he failed to qualify for the American team, and Lewis won at
   Helsinki with relative ease. His winning leap of 8.55 m defeated silver
   medallist Jason Grimes by 26 cm.

   Things were much the same in the 100 m. There, Calvin Smith who had
   earlier that year set a new world record in the 100 m at altitude with
   a 9.93 s performance, could only watch from behind as Lewis beat him
   10.07 s to 10.21 s. Smith would win the 200 m title, an event which
   Lewis had not entered, but even there he was partly in Lewis’ shadow as
   Lewis had set an American record in that event earlier that year. He
   won the 200 m June 19 at the TAC/Mobil Championships in 19.75 s, the
   second-fastest time in history and the low-altitude record, only .03 s
   behind Pietro Mennea’s 1979 mark. Finally, Lewis ran the anchor in the
   4 x 100 m relay, winning in 37.86 s, a new world record and the first
   in Lewis’ career.

   As with most athletes, for Lewis the ultimate goal at Helsinki was to
   win gold medals, not to set world records. There is an oft-repeated
   adage in track and field on this matter, which can be paraphrased: You
   keep the medals, you borrow the records. There were also practical
   reasons to focus on medals over records: With the relatively
   challenging conditions at a World Championships and Olympic games and
   with far more fans and media attention than at other meets, not to
   mention multiple qualifying rounds during which a single miscue could
   mean disqualification, an athlete attempting success, especially in
   multiple events, would be discouraged from going all-out in one and
   thus risk failure or injury, unless it was required in order to qualify
   or win the event. Further, a world record typically occurs when
   conditions are perfect, which is never a guarantee on any given day.
   This partly explains why Lewis’ year-best performances in the 100 m and
   long jump were not at the World Championships, but at other meets.
   These marks were impressive, as he became the first person to run a
   sub-10 second 100 m at low-altitude with a 9.97 s clocking at Modesto
   May 14. His gold at the World Championships and his other fast times
   earned him the number one ranking in the world that year, despite
   Calvin Smith’s world record. At the TAC Championships on June 19, he
   set a new low-altitude record in the long jump, 8.79 m, and earned the
   world number one ranking in that event, but only a number two ranking
   in the 200 m despite his low-altitude record 19.75 s set at the same
   meet. Because Smith had won gold at Helsinki and titles won usually
   outweigh marks set for the rankers at Track and Field News, he was
   given the nod. But Lewis got the ultimate honour that year, being named
   Athlete of the Year again by the magazine.

   Lewis had proved himself in Helsinki: Now a bigger event loomed, the
   Olympic Games, and a bigger goal: four golds to match Jesse Owens' feat
   from the 1936 Olympics.

1984 Olympics and the quest to equal Jesse Owens

   Lewis was one of the biggest sporting celebrities in the world by the
   start of 1984, but owing to track and field’s relatively low profile in
   America, Lewis was not nearly as well known there. Though America
   annually produces the strongest or one of the strongest track and field
   teams in the world, it is chiefly during the Olympic Games that the
   general public there pays much attention to its track stars. In 1984,
   not only was Lewis an established star in the sport, the summer
   Olympics were being held in America for the first time in over half a
   century. The 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles would make Lewis a
   household name in America.

   Given Lewis’ stated goal to become rich and famous, and his willingness
   to seek publicity and speak his mind, he and agent Joe Douglas, founder
   and manager of the Santa Monica Track Club of which Lewis was a member,
   openly discussed his wish to match Jesse Owens' feat of winning four
   gold medals at a single Olympic Games and to “cash in” afterwards with
   the lucrative endorsement deals which surely would follow. As it turned
   out, his first goal would prove to be far easier accomplished than his
   latter goal, at least in America.

   Lewis started his quest to match Owens with a convincing win in the 100
   m, running 9.99 s to handily defeat his nearest competitor, fellow
   American Sam Graddy, by .20 s. In his next event, the long jump, Lewis
   won with relative ease. His third gold medal came in the 200 m, where
   he again won handily in a time of 19.80 s, a new Olympic record. And
   finally, he won his fourth gold when the 4 x 100 m relay team he
   anchored finished in a time of 37.83 s, a new world record eclipsing
   the record he helped set the year before at the World Championships.

   Lewis had achieved what he had set out to do. He had matched Jesse
   Owens’ legendary feat of winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics,
   and he had done so with relative ease. Though some events at the
   Olympics had been reduced in quality by the Soviet-led boycott, it was
   not likely that Lewis would have been challenged by any of the missing
   athletes in his events. However, Lewis had also expected to win
   lucrative endorsement deals, but few if any were forthcoming in
   America. Though no single reason or incident can account for this, an
   ominous sign for Lewis that he would not be easily embraced by the
   American public emerged with the controversy surrounding the long jump
   competition (see the Controversies section below).

   At year’s end, Lewis was again awarded the top ranks in the 100 m and
   the long jump and was additionally ranked number one in the 200 m. And
   for the third year in a row, he was awarded the Athlete of the Year
   title by Track and Field News.

   Carl Lewis was also drafted in the 10th round of the 1984 NBA draft by
   the Chicago Bulls. He never played in the NBA.

Ben Johnson emerges as a challenger

   After the Los Angeles Olympics, Lewis continued to dominate track and
   field, especially in the long jump, an event he would not lose at for
   seven more years, but others started to challenge his dominance in the
   100 m sprint. His low-altitude record had been surpassed by fellow
   American Mel Lattney with a time of 9.96 s shortly before the 1984
   Olympics, but his biggest challenger would prove to be Canadian Ben
   Johnson, the bronze medalist behind Lewis at the 1984 Olympics. Johnson
   would beat Lewis once in 1985, but Lewis also lost to others, while
   winning most of his races. Lewis retained his number one rank that
   year, Johnson would place second. In 1986, Johnson defeated Lewis
   convincingly at the Goodwill Games in Moscow, clocking a new
   low-altitude record of 9.95 s. At year’s end, Johnson was ranked number
   one, while Lewis slipped to number three having lost more races than he
   won. He even seemed vulnerable in the long jump, an event he didn’t
   lose at in 1986, or the year before, though he competed sparingly.
   Lewis ended up ranked second behind Soviet Robert Emmiyan, who had the
   longest legal jump of the year at 8.61 m.

1987 World Championships

   The 1987 World Championships in Athletics in Rome would be Lewis’
   opportunity to regain the momentum he seemed to have lost the previous
   two years.

   The second World Championships would prove to the world that rumours of
   Lewis’ decline were greatly exaggerated. But they would also prove that
   Lewis was beatable, even when he was in top form. To focus on his
   strongest event, the long jump, Lewis skipped the 200 m and made sure
   to take all his attempts. This was not to answer critics from the 1984
   long jump controversy; this was because history’s second 29 ft
   long-jumper was in the field. Robert Emmiyan had leaped 8.86 m (29 ft 1
   in) at altitude in May, just 4 cm short of Bob Beamon’s record. But
   Emmiyan could only manage an 8.53 m leap that day, and Lewis won with a
   mark of 8.67 m, clearing 8.60 m four times. In the 4 x 100 m relay,
   Lewis anchored the gold-medal team to time of 37.90 s, the
   third-fastest of all time.

   But the event which was most talked about and which caused the most
   drama was the 100 m final. Johnson had run under 10.00 s three times
   that year before Rome, while Lewis had not managed to get under the
   10.00 s barrier at all. But Lewis looked strong in the heats of the 100
   m, setting a Championship record in the semi-final while running into a
   wind with a 10.03 s effort. In the final, however, Johnson took control
   and sped to the finish line in a time which stunned observers: 9.83 s,
   a new world record. Lewis, second with 9.93 s, had tied the existing
   world record, but was beaten.

   While Johnson basked in the glory of his achievement, Lewis started to
   explain away his defeat. He first claimed that Johnson had
   false-started, then he alluded to a stomach virus which had weakened
   him, and finally, without naming names, said “There are a lot of people
   coming out of nowhere. I don’t think they are doing it without drugs.”
   He added, “I could run 9.8 or faster in the 100 if I could jump into
   drugs right away.” This was the start of Lewis’ calling on the sport of
   track and field to be cleaned up in terms of the illegal use of
   performance-enhancing drugs. Cynics noted that the problem had been in
   the sport for many years, and it only become a cause for Lewis once he
   was actually defeated. In response to the accusations, Johnson replied
   "When Carl Lewis was winning everything, I never said a word against
   him. And when the next guy comes along and beats me, I won’t complain
   about that either".

The 1988 Olympics: turmoil and vindication

   Lewis not only lost the most publicized showdown in track and field in
   1987, he also lost his father. When William McKinley Lewis Jr. died,
   Lewis placed the gold medal he won for the 100 m in 1984 in his hand to
   be buried with him. "Don't worry,” he told his mother. “I'll get
   another one.” Lewis would repeatedly refer to his father as a
   motivating factor for the 1988 season. “A lot happened to me last year,
   especially the death of my father. That caused me to rededicate myself
   to being the very best I possibly can be this season,” he said, after
   defeating Johnson in Zürich August 17.

   The defeat of Johnson shortly before the Olympics was part of a
   year-long grudge match between the two athletes. The Johnson camp had
   angrily defended their star against the drug accusations Lewis had
   thrown out, but they also were scrambling to get Johnson ready after he
   suffered a hamstring injury during the indoor season. When Lewis
   defeated Johnson in their first meeting since Rome’s World
   Championships, the drama for the Olympics only heightened. Lewis had
   run 9.93 s, the identical time he ran finishing second to Johnson the
   previous year. Johnson ran 10.00 s, indicating he was recovering well
   from his injury, but not answering the question whether he’d be ready
   for the Olympic final a bit more than a month away.

   The 100 m final at the 1988 Olympics was one of the most-hyped sports
   stories of the year; its dramatic outcome would rank as one of the top
   sports stories of the century, according to some. The quarterfinal
   rounds saw Johnson almost not qualifying as he eased up too early,
   allowing two to pass him. But his time stood as the fastest of the time
   qualifiers and he advanced to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals the
   next day, Lewis ran 9.97 s into a wind, and Johnson did likewise with a
   time of 10.03 s. In the final, Johnson had the fastest start and was
   soon in the lead. Lewis, not known for his starts, lagged in third by
   30 m, but passed Canadian Desai Williams around 60 m. In the end, Lewis
   was unable to get any closer to Johnson, who had a 2 m lead. Johnson
   won in 9.79 s, a new world record, Lewis set a new American record with
   a clocking of 9.92 s. Johnson repeated the old track adage about the
   primacy of titles over records, “They can break my record, but they
   can’t take my gold medal away,” but in this case he was wrong. Three
   days later, he tested positive for steroids, his medal was taken away
   and Lewis was awarded gold. Additionally, Lewis’ time was recognized as
   the new Olympic record.

   The rest of the Olympics were a mixed bag for Lewis, at least in
   comparison to his 1984 Olympic triumphs. Robert Emmiyan withdrew from
   the long jump competition citing an injury, and Lewis’ main challengers
   were rising American long jump star Mike Powell and long-time rival
   Larry Myricks. Unlike in 1984, Lewis did not win the competition on his
   initial leap. After three rounds, he was in first, but by only 7 cm
   over Powell. But after a controversy about jumping order, Lewis leapt
   8.72 m, a low-altitude Olympic best, and none of his competitors could
   match it. The Americans swept the medals in the event for the first
   time in 84 years. [ibid, p. 41] In the 200 m, Lewis dipped under his
   Olympic record from 1984, running 19.79 s, but did so in second place
   to Joe DeLoach, who claimed the new record and Olympic gold in 19.75 s.
   [ibid, p. 13] In the final event he was entered in, the 4 x 100 m
   relay, Lewis never even made it to the track as the American team
   fumbled an exchange in one of the heats and were disqualified. [ibid,
   p. 32]

   Though not matching his results from the 1984 Olympics in terms of gold
   medals, Lewis nevertheless achieved a career milestone in winning the
   100 m gold: His 9.92 s performance would be the first time he set an
   outdoor world record. "Would be" because despite Johnson's
   disqualification for steroid use at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, his
   world record from the 1987 World Championships still stood. After
   Johnson admitted to long-term steroid use while under oath during a
   1989 inquiry, he was stripped of his gold medal and world record from
   that 1987 performance and Lewis was deemed to be the world record
   holder for his 1988 Olympic performance. Lewis was also deemed to have
   tied the then existing world record (9.93 s) for his 1987 World
   Championship performance, and again at the Zürich meet where he
   defeated Johnson. From January 1, 1990, Lewis was, for the first time,
   the world record holder in the 100 m. But Lewis did not hold the mantle
   of world record holder in the 100 m for very long, as fellow American
   Leroy Burrell ran 9.90 s on June 14, 1991 to break the mark Lewis set
   at Seoul. Lewis had lost his ranking as number one sprinter the past
   two years and while still remaining undefeated in the long jump, it
   seemed the sprinting world had caught up and passed him by. Lewis,
   however, responded by putting in the greatest 100 m and long jump
   performances of his life at that summer’s World Championships.

The 1991 World Championships: Lewis’ greatest performances

   Tokyo was the venue for the 1991 World Championships. In the 100 m
   final, Lewis faced the two men who ranked number one in the world the
   past two years: Burrell and Jamaican Raymond Stewart. In what would be
   the deepest 100 m race ever, with six men finishing in under 10.00 s,
   Lewis not only defeated his opponents, he reclaimed the world record
   with a clocking of 9.86 s. Though previously a world-record holder in
   this event, this was the first time he had crossed the line with “WR”
   beside his name on the giant television screens, and the first time he
   could savour his achievement at the moment it occurred. He could be
   seen with tears in his eyes afterwards. "The best race of my life,"
   Lewis said. "The best technique, the fastest. And I did it at 30." He
   additionally anchored the 4 x100 m relay team to another world record,
   37.50 s, the third time that year he had anchored a 4 x 100 m squad to
   a world record. Though the 100 m record has long since been broken, and
   other 100 m races rival the 1991 Tokyo final as the greatest ever, the
   long jump final at the same competition is considered by some to have
   been one of greatest competitions ever.

   Lewis was up against his main rival of the last few years, Mike Powell,
   the silver medalist in the event from the 1988 Olympics and the
   top-ranked long jumper of 1990. Lewis had to that point not lost a long
   jump competition in a decade, winning 65 consecutive meets. Powell had
   been unable to defeat Lewis, despite sometimes putting in jumps near
   world-record territory, only to see them ruled fouls. Or, as with other
   competitors such as Larry Myricks, putting in leaps which Lewis himself
   had only rarely surpassed, only to see Lewis surpass them on his next
   or final attempt. Lewis started his competition in dramatic fashion
   with a jump of 8.68 m, a World Championship record, and a mark bested
   by only three others beside Lewis all-time. Powell, jumping first, had
   faltered in the first round, but came up with an 8.54 m to grab second
   place in the second round. Myricks was also in the competition, but he
   didn’t challenge the leaders.

   Lewis jumped 8.83 m, a wind-aided leap, in the third round, a mark
   which would have won every long jump competition in history save two,
   but which ultimately would not be the winning mark today, nor even
   Lewis’ best of the day. Powell then put together a long foul, estimated
   to be around 8.80 m. Lewis responded to Powell by putting in yet
   another huge jump. The wind gauge indicated that it was a wind-aided
   jump, so it could not be considered a record, but it would still count
   in the competition. The result: 8.91 m. Lewis had surpassed Bob
   Beamon’s immortal 8.90 m world record leap with the greatest leap ever
   under all conditions.

   In the fifth round, it was Powell’s turn to respond. This time, his
   jump was not a foul, and with a wind gauge measurement of 0.3 m/s, well
   within the legal allowable for a record. The crowd exploded when the
   distance was revealed: 8.95 m, a new world record, beating the
   23-year-old mark set by Bob Beamon.

   Lewis still had two jumps left, though he was suddenly no longer
   chasing Beamon, but Powell. He leaped 8.87 m, which was a new personal
   best under legal wind conditions—indeed, it was done with the wind in
   his face—then he took his final jump and leaped 8.84 m. Despite the
   enormous pressure of having to best a world record, Lewis achieved the
   third and fifth greatest legal long jumps in history, and the second
   and third longest at low altitude, behind only Powell’s record leap.
   Lewis had put in the greatest series of jumps in history, even
   surpassing the old world record with a wind-aided jump, but lost the
   competition. So great was the competition that, 15 years later,
   Powell’s record still stands, and Lewis’ legal jumps rank as 3rd and
   5th all-time, their marks ranked one-two-three all-time at
   low-altitude.

   Lewis’ reaction to what was one of the greatest competitions ever in
   the sport in part explains why he never was truly appreciated by many
   for his remarkable athletic achievements, as he only grudgingly
   acknowledged the achievement of Powell. "He just did it," Lewis said of
   Powell's winning jump. "It was that close, and it was the best of his
   life, and he may never do it again." While this ended up being true for
   Powell (at least under legal wind conditions), it was also true for
   Lewis himself.

   As for his efforts at the 1991 World Championships, Lewis said, “This
   has been the greatest meet that I’ve ever had.” Track and Field News
   was prepared to go even further than that, suggesting that after these
   Championships, “[I]t had become hard to argue that he is not the
   greatest athlete ever to set foot on track or field.”

   Lewis credits his outstanding 1991 results in part to the vegan diet he
   adopted in 1990.

The 1992 Olympics and beyond

   After the heights reached in 1991, Lewis started to lose his dominance
   in both the sprints and the long jump. Though he anchored a world
   record 1:19.11 in the rarely run 4 x 200 m relay with the Santa Monica
   Track Club early in 1992, he failed to qualify for the Olympic team in
   the 100 m or 200 m. In the latter race, he finished fourth at the
   Olympic trials behind rising star Michael Johnson who set a personal
   best of 19.79 s. It was the first time the two had ever met on the
   track. Lewis did, however, qualify for the long jump, finishing second
   behind Powell, and was eligible for the 4 x 100 m relay team.

   At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Lewis made most of his
   opportunities, leaping 8.67 m in the first round of the long jump,
   beating Powell who did a final-round 8.64 m, 3 cm short of victory. In
   the 4 x 100 m relay, Lewis anchored yet another world record, this time
   in 37.40 s, a time which has since only been matched, not yet beaten.

   Lewis competed at the 4th World Championships in Stuttgart in 1993, but
   finished fourth in the 100 m, and did not compete in the long jump. He
   did, however, earn his first World Championship medal in the 200 m, a
   bronze with his 19.99 s performance. That medal would prove to be his
   final Olympic or World Championship medal in a running event. Injuries
   kept Lewis largely sidelined for next few years, then he made a
   comeback for the 1996 season.

Lewis and the 1996 Olympics

   Lewis qualified for American Olympic team for the fifth time in the
   long jump, the only time an American man has achieved such a feat. And
   though he finished eighth in the 100 m final at the Olympic Trials, the
   fact that he was on the Olympic team meant that he could be considered
   for the relay team. [ibid, p. 10] At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics,
   world-record holder Powell and the leading long-jumper in the world,
   Iván Pedroso, were both hobbled by injuries, and had sub-par
   performances. Lewis, on the other hand, was in good form. Even if not
   in the league of some of his past performances, his third-round leap of
   8.50 m was good enough to win gold, and by a margin of 21 cm over
   second-place James Beckford of Jamaica. He thus became one of only
   three Olympic athletes to win the same individual event four times.
   Additionally, Lewis’ ninth gold medal tied him with Finnish running
   great Paavo Nurmi who had more gold medals than any other track and
   field athlete, save for Ray Ewry who had 10, if the 1906 Intercalated
   Games are included.

   But, again, controversy struck when as Track and Field News put it,
   “Lewis’ pissy attitude in the whole relay hoo-hah a few days later
   served only to take the luster off his final gold.”

   After Lewis’ unexpected long jump gold, it was noted that he could
   surpass Nurmi as the track and field athlete with most golds at the
   Olympics if he was entered on the 4 x 100 m relay team. This was
   because any member of the American Olympic men’s track team could be
   used, even if they never ran the event. Lewis said, “If they asked me,
   I’d run it in a second. But they haven’t asked me to run it.” He
   further suggested on Larry King Live that viewers phone the United
   States Olympic Committee to let them know what they thought of the
   situation. The fact that Lewis had skipped the mandatory relay training
   camp and demanded to run only the anchor leg added to the debate. The
   final decision was not to add Lewis to the team. As Olympic team coach
   Erv Hunt said, “The basis of their [the relay team’s] opinion was ‘We
   want to run, we worked our butts off and we deserve to be here.’”
   [ibid, p. 31] In the end, the American relay team finished second to
   the Canadian team, the first time an American 4 x 100 m men’s relay
   team had ever been defeated in an Olympic final when they ran a clean
   race. Since the Canadian team was anchored by Donovan Bailey, who had
   days earlier set a new world record in the 100 m, and the Canadians ran
   the fastest time ever recorded in America, there is doubt that the
   addition of Lewis to the team would have made a difference in the final
   result. “Amid the American hype, Canada was indeed being overlooked,
   despite having Worlds silver medalist Bruny Surin to back up the new WR
   holder Bailey,” said Track and Field News. [ibid., p. 30] But the
   controversy was unquestionably a distraction for the team, and whether
   Lewis’ presence would have made a difference is irresolvable.

   Lewis retired from the sport in 1997.

   In 1999, he was voted "Sportsman of the Century" by the International
   Olympic Committee, elected "World Athlete of the Century" by the
   International Association of Athletics Federations and named "Olympian
   of the Century" by the American sports magazine Sports Illustrated.

Controversies

1984 Olympic long jump final

   Lewis had already won gold in the 100 m at the 1984 Los Angeles
   Olympics when he ran down the runway in his first attempt in the long
   jump. He still had qualifying heats and finals in both the 200 m and 4
   x 100 m to prepare for and compete in his quest to match Jesse Owens'
   feat of four golds at a single Olympics. When his first leap was
   measured, it was 8.54 m. He made one more attempt, but it was a foul.
   He then decided to skip the four jumps he had remaining in the
   competition, as he was certain that no one else in the field would
   surpass his first-round jump. Indeed, the best silver medallist Gary
   Honey of Australia could manage was 8.24 m, 30 cm behind Lewis. Track
   aficionados generally agreed that Lewis’ decision was the correct one
   under the circumstances. Lewis’ goal here was to win four gold medals;
   records were welcome but secondary. Besides, the conditions that day
   were slightly cool, meaning a record was unlikely and Lewis risked
   injury with more superfluous attempts when he had many rounds to
   compete in elsewhere. But the public had been repeatedly told by the
   media of Lewis’ quest to surpass Bob Beamon’s legendary long jump
   record of 8.90 m, and Lewis himself had often stated it was a goal of
   his to surpass the mark. A television ad with Beamon himself appeared
   before the final, featuring the record-holder saying, “I hope you make
   it, kid.” So, when Lewis decided not to make any more attempts to try
   to break the record, he was roundly booed. When asked about those boos,
   Lewis said, "I was shocked at first. But after I thought about it, I
   realized that they were booing because they wanted to see more of Carl
   Lewis. I guess that's flattering."

Behaviour

   Lewis’ self-congratulatory conduct did not impress several other track
   stars. "He rubs it in too much," said Edwin Moses, two-time Olympic
   gold medalist in the 400 m hurdles. "A little humility is in order.
   That's what Carl lacks." Further, Lewis’ agent Joe Douglas compared him
   to pop star Michael Jackson, a comparison which did not go over well.
   Douglas said he was inaccurately quoted, but the impression that Lewis
   was aloof and egotistical was firmly planted in the public’s perception
   by the end of the 1984 Olympic games.

   Additionally, rumours that Lewis was a homosexual circulated, and
   though Lewis denied the rumours, it probably hurt his marketability as
   well. Lewis’ look at the Games, with a flat-top haircut and flamboyant
   clothing, added fuel to the reports. "It doesn't matter what Carl
   Lewis' sexuality is," high jumper Dwight Stones said. "Madison Avenue
   perceives him as homosexual." Coke had offered a lucrative deal to
   Lewis before the Olympics, an offer Lewis and Douglas turned down,
   confident he’d be worth more after the Olympics. But Coke rescinded the
   offer after the Games. Nike had Lewis under contract for several years
   already, despite questions about how it affected his amateur status,
   and he was appearing on Nike television ads, in print and on
   billboards. After the Games and faced with Lewis’ new negative image,
   Nike dropped him. "If you're a male athlete, I think the American
   public wants you to look macho," said Don Coleman, a Nike
   representative. "They started looking for ways to get rid of me," Lewis
   said. "Everyone there was so scared and so cynical they didn't know
   what to do." Lewis himself would lay the blame on some inaccurate
   reporting, especially the “Carl bashing,” as he put it, typified by a
   Sports Illustrated article before the Olympics.

   Some of the resentment towards Lewis stemmed from the ambivalence over
   the amateur/professional status with which track and field was then
   struggling. In Europe and Asia, large appearance fees were a given and
   accepted, and Lewis was enormously popular. And, his endorsement fees
   there meant he profited handsomely by his athletic achievements despite
   the lack of endorsements in the United States. In America, by contrast,
   it was seen to be unseemly to "cash in" on what was supposedly an
   “amateur” sport, even while many professional athletes did exactly
   that. It was perhaps not until the appearance of the National
   Basketball Association stars at the 1992 Olympics that this ambivalence
   finally ended. Lewis had always been one of the highest-profile
   athletes in the movement towards professionalism at the Olympics and in
   formerly “amateur” events. “Amateurism is the strongest form of
   discrimination in sports," said Lewis. "Because it discriminates
   against the underprivileged, it discriminates against the poor. If we
   want sports to go back to the wealthy, let's make it amateur again."

   Some athletes who subsequently profited from these once-amateur sports
   feel they owe a debt to Lewis. “I don't know if the generation of
   runners today, with huge appearance fees, fully appreciate what the
   generations before them did to build the sport and the market,” former
   100 m record-holder and Olympic gold medallist Donovan Bailey said in
   2006. “I ran into Carl Lewis recently in Toronto, and I thanked him.”

Drug accusations

   In 2003, Dr. Wade Exum, the United States Olympic Committee's director
   of drug control administration from 1991 to 2000, gave copies of
   documents to Sports Illustrated which revealed that some 100 American
   athletes who failed drug tests and should have been prevented from
   competing in the Olympics were nevertheless cleared to compete. Among
   those athletes was Carl Lewis.

   It was revealed that Lewis tested positive three times before the 1988
   Olympics for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine,
   banned stimulants also found in cold medication, and had been banned
   from the Seoul Olympics and from competition for six months. The USOC
   accepted his claim of inadvertent use and overturned the decision.
   Fellow Santa Monica Track Club teammates Joe DeLoach and Floyd Heard
   were also found to have the same banned stimulants in their systems,
   and were cleared to compete for the same reason.

   The positive results occurred at the Olympic Trials in July 1988 where
   athletes were required to declare on the drug-testing forms
   "over-the-counter medication, prescription drugs and any other
   substances you have taken by mouth, injection or by suppository."

   "Carl did nothing wrong. There was never intent. He was never told, you
   violated the rules," said Martin D. Singer, Lewis' lawyer, who also
   said that Lewis had inadvertently taken the banned stimulants in an
   over-the-counter herbal remedy. Some experts claim that the banned
   stimulants can be used as masking agents for more serious drugs, such
   as anabolic steroids. "The only thing I can say is I think it's
   unfortunate what Wade Exum is trying to do," said Lewis. "I don't know
   what people are trying to make out of nothing because everyone was
   treated the same, so what are we talking about? I don't get it."

Personal bests

     * 100 m: 9.86 s (1991)
     * 200 m: 19.75 s (1983)
     * Long jump: 8.87 m (1991), w 8.91 m (1991)
     * 4x100 m relay: 37.40 s (United States - Marsh Michael, Burrell
       Leroy, Mitchell Dennis, Lewis Carl - 1992; current world record)
     * 4x200 m relay: 1:18.68 (Santa Monica Track Club - Marsh Michael,
       Burrell Leroy, Heard Floyd, Lewis Carl - 1994; current world
       record)

Trivia

     * Lewis’ mother, the former Evelyn Lawler, was an Olympian who
       competed at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki in the 80 m hurdles.

     * Carl's sister Carol Lewis was also an Olympian, finishing 9th in
       the long jump at the 1984 Olympics, and earning a bronze medal in
       the same event at the 1983 World Championships. She additionally
       set two American records in the long jump in 1985.

     * The Chicago Bulls drafted Carl Lewis in the 1984 NBA Draft as the
       208th overall pick, even though he hadn't played high school or
       college basketball. Lewis never played in the NBA. On the NBA's
       website he's included in a section named "draft oddities"
       explaining this was an honorary draft capitalizing on his
       popularity after the Los Angeles Olympics. There's a poll on the
       same page where Lewis is second to Lucy Harris, the only woman to
       be drafted by the NBA, as the most unique pick in the history of
       the NBA Draft.

     * Though he did not play football in college, Carl Lewis was drafted
       as a wide receiver in the 12th round of the 1984 NFL Draft by the
       Dallas Cowboys but he did not play.

     * Carl Lewis' gold in the 1984 Olympics 100 m was buried with his
       father. Lewis placed the medal in his father's hands at the funeral
       and told his mother, "Don't worry. I'll get another one"

     * Singing the Star-Spangled Banner on January 21, 1993, Lewis gave a
       notoriously bad rendition of the song when his voice began to
       screech at the line "and the rockets red glare." After promising
       "I'll make up for it," he never did. The explanation given for the
       performance was being hoarse after singing at the White House
       inauguration ceremony for President Clinton the day before. His
       performance at the game became even more famous after ESPN
       SportsCenter's Charlie Steiner was unable to contain himself from
       laughing after a replay of the "highlight," which Steiner said must
       have been written by " Francis Scott Off-Key". One can also hear
       this 'Lewis soundbite' repeatedly made fun of on Jim Rome's daily
       radio program as well as occasional plays on the Howard Stern Show.

     * Lewis is referenced in a song about boring television programmes by
       The Fall, entitled A Lot of Wind. The lyrics run 'then they have
       Carl Lewis on / he's got a ponytail and he's a vegan / he talks a
       lot of wind / he talks a lot about wind'.

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