Carl Lewis
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Frederick Carlton "Carl" Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is a retired American athlete who won 10 Olympic medals (9 golds) during his career (1984 to 1996), and 8 World Championship gold medals, and 1 bronze (1983 to 1993).
His accomplishments have led some people to rank him as the greatest athlete of all time.
Biography
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Carl grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey, in the Philadelphia area. At age 13, Lewis started to compete in the long jump. With his high sprinting speed, he also performed well in the sprint events. He enrolled at the University of Houston in 1979 on a track scholarship where, as a Freshman, he won the long jump at both the NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship and the NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship.In 1980, Carl was selected for the US Olympic team, but the American boycott of the Games in Moscow delayed Lewis' debut. He received the 1981 James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.
The following years, Lewis set season's-best performances in the 100 m and long jump. At the inaugural World Championships in 1983, Lewis won his first major titles, achieving victory in the 100 m, long jump and the 4 x 100 m relay events.
This made him a great favorite for success at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Also entering the 200 m, Lewis sought to equal Jesse Owens' performance of 1936 by winning these four events, which he did.
At the World Championships in Rome in 1987, Lewis repeated his gold performances of 1983 in the long jump and the 4 x 100 m relay events, but finished second in the 100 m to Ben Johnson who ran a world record in defeating Lewis. Two years later, Lewis was awarded the 100 m gold (see below).
Lewis tried for four more golds at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. However, things did not all go his way. He won the 100 metre sprint, but only after Ben Johnson was disqualified for a steroid violation. It has since become known that Lewis himself had failed a drug test (for a cold medicine) before the games, although he was subsequently cleared by the IAAF (see below). In the 200 m, he was surprisingly beaten by compatriot Joe DeLoach. The 4 x 100 m relay team was disqualified in the heats (with Lewis not even running) due to a bad exchange. Lewis had no problems defending his long jump title and headed an all-American medal podium.
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 9.92s performance would be the first time he set an outdoor world record. "Would be" because despite Ben Johnson's disqualifaction for steroid use at the Seoul Olympics, his world record from the 1987 World Championships still stood. After Johnson admitted to steroid use while under oath during a 1989 inquiry, he was stripped of his gold medal and world record from that performance and Lewis was deemed to be the world record holder for his 1988 Olympic performance, and was also deemed to have tied the then existing world record (9.93s) for his 1987 World Championship performance.
During the season of 1991, Carl Lewis and his teammate Leroy Burrell, dominated the sprint events. In the races before the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, Burrell broke Carl Lewis' world record, as he ran 9.90s. However, in the World Championships Carl Lewis responded to Burrell's challenge, in perhaps the best 100m race in history, as a true Champion. In a race where six out of eight runners broke 10 seconds, a situation that had never previously occurred, Carl Lewis became the first man ever to officially break 9.90s, as he ran 9.86; thereby clinching his third World Championship title in the 100m and setting a new world record. 1991 was also the first year in which Lewis adhered to a vegan diet.
In the years subsequent to 1991, Lewis's sprinting career began to tail-off, although his long jump performance was still excellent. However, he was challenged in that event as well, as compatriot Mike Powell won an exciting duel at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, in which the legendary record of Bob Beamon from 1968 was finally broken.
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, another duel between the two was decided in favour of Lewis, winning his third consecutive Olympic long jump title. Lewis also ran the last leg of the American 4 x 100 m team.
In the years that followed, Lewis did not win any major titles. In 1996 - aged 35 - he made a strong comeback in the long jump event, and made a bid for a fourth consecutive Olympic title. Lewis succeeded with remarkable ease, becoming only the third Olympian to win four consecutive titles in an individual event - the two others being Al Oerter (discus throw 1956-1968) and Paul Elvstrøm (yachting, 1948-1960). Lewis and Oerter are the only two to have won the same event at four consecutive Olympics; Elvstrøm won in two different events. With his nine Olympic victories, Lewis is tied for the most number of Olympic gold medals for a male athlete with Paavo Nurmi, a long-distance runner from Finland who competed in the 1920s.
Carl Lewis recorded a single called "[Break It Up]" in 1987 with his band, named Carl Lewis and the Electric Storm. His attempt at a career as a recording artist, however, proved unsuccessful.
Lewis retired after the Atlanta Olympics and is now an actor, living in Los Angeles, California.
Controversy
Lewis was often very outspoken during his career against those athletes who used performance enhancing drugs. He stressed his Christian beliefs and fair play and was very damning of those who were caught out, particularly Ben Johnson. However, in 2003 Lewis admitted that he had tested positive three times for banned stimulants during the 1988 Olympic trials. Lewis claimed that he ingested the banned substances by mistake in an "herbal supplement". He was allowed to compete in the Seoul Olympics after the U.S. Olympic Committee ruled that his use of stimulants was "inadvertent" and not performance-enhancing. In Seoul he went on to receive the gold medal in the 100 metre sprint after the disqualification of Canada's Ben Johnson. Some scientists believe that the failed tests could be evidence of "masking drugs" used to conceal the use of more serious substances such as steroids. The International Olympic Committee has affirmed that Lewis' medals will not be revoked because it maintains a three year statute of limitations on such cases.Personal bests
- 100 m: 9.86 s (1991, new world record)
- 200 m: 19.75 s (1983)
- Long jump: 8.87 m (1991), w8.91 m (1991, wind assisted)
- 4x100 m relay: 37.40 s (1992, current world record)
Trivia
- The Chicago Bulls drafted Carl Lewis in the 1984 NBA Draft with the 208th overall pick; Lewis never played in the NBA.
- 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. [link].
- Carl Lewis' gold in the 1984 Olympics 100m 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" [link].
- 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".
Notes
- Justin Gatlin (USA) and Asafa Powell (JAM) hold the current world record for the 100 metres with 9.77 seconds.
External links
- *IAAF profile for [Carl Lewis]
- [Music video for 'Break It Up']
- [Carl Lewis' U.S. Olympic Team bio]
- [Guardian story about Lewis and alleged USOC doping cover-up]
- [Carl Lewis - Official Website]
- [Carl Lewis on Being Vegan]
- [Carl Lewis] on the IMDb
| Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's 100 m |
|---|
| 1896: Tom Burke | 1900: Frank Jarvis | 1904: Archie Hahn | 1908: Reggie Walker | 1912: Ralph Craig | 1920: Charlie Paddock | 1924: Harold Abrahams | 1928: Percy Williams | 1932: Eddie Tolan | 1936: Jesse Owens | 1948: Harrison Dillard | 1952: Lindy Remigino | 1956: Bobby Joe Morrow | 1960: Armin Hary | 1964: Bob Hayes | 1968: Jim Hines | 1972: Valeri Borzov | 1976: Hasely Crawford | 1980: Allan Wells | 1984: Carl Lewis | 1988: Carl Lewis | 1992: Linford Christie | 1996: Donovan Bailey | 2000: Maurice Greene | 2004: Justin Gatlin |
| Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's 200 m |
|---|
| 1900: John Tewksbury | 1904: Archie Hahn | 1908: Bobby Kerr | 1912: Ralph Craig | 1920: Allen Woodring | 1924: Jackson Scholz | 1928: Percy Williams | 1932: Eddie Tolan | 1936: Jesse Owens | 1948: Mel Patton | 1952: Andy Stanfield | 1956: Bobby Joe Morrow | 1960: Livio Berruti | 1964: Henry Carr | 1968: Tommie Smith | 1972: Valeri Borzov | 1976: Don Quarrie | 1980: Pietro Mennea | 1984: Carl Lewis | 1988: Joe DeLoach | 1992: Mike Marsh | 1996: Michael Johnson | 2000: Konstantinos Kenteris | 2004: Shawn Crawford |
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