Carl Lewis

Track was the family business. His mother had hurdled for the United States at the 1951 Pan American Games, his parents ran an athletics club in Willingboro, New Jersey, and his father did the coaching. His sister Carol became a world-class long jumper in her own right, with a bronze at the 1983 world championships. He started long jumping at 13, and by the time he left Willingboro High School in 1979 he stood fourth on the all-time world junior list. Days after graduation he broke the national high school record. He chose the University of Houston for Tom Tellez, who coached him for the whole of his career and rebuilt his approach so that an old knee injury stopped hurting. Then came the 1980 Olympic boycott.

At the 1983 world championships in Helsinki he won the 100 metres, won the long jump, and anchored a relay world record. In Los Angeles the next summer he took four Olympic golds in the same four events Jesse Owens had won in 1936. In Seoul in 1988 he finished second to Ben Johnson and was handed the gold three days later when Johnson's test came back positive. At Tokyo in 1991 he ran 9.86 seconds for a world record and called it the best race of his life, then lost the long jump on the same trip when Mike Powell broke Bob Beamon's 23-year-old mark and ended a run of 65 consecutive wins. Barcelona brought another long jump gold. In Atlanta in 1996, at 35, he won that event for the fourth straight Games.

He won four gold medals in his own country and got booed for it. The press had spent months on his pursuit of Beamon's long jump record, and when he passed jumps in the final to save himself for the 200 metres, the Coliseum let him hear about it. Coca-Cola withdrew an offer it had made before the Games and Nike dropped him after them — the American public wants a male athlete to look macho, one of its people explained — and rumors that he was gay, which he denied, finished the endorsement market off. Then in 2003 a former drug-control official released documents showing Lewis had failed three tests at the 1988 Olympic trials for over-the-counter stimulants. The committee had accepted a herbal supplement as the cause and cleared two teammates the same way.

The verdicts arrived while he was still young. The International Olympic Committee named him Sportsman of the Century in 1999 and world athletics gave him the equivalent title. He acted, ran for the New Jersey State Senate in 2011 and was thrown off the ballot for failing a four-year residency rule, and went back to Houston, where the track complex has carried his name since 2000. He joined the coaching staff there and has run the program since 2023. He has been vegan since 1990. In a 2025 documentary he said he had never had a long relationship, because he believed it would have cost him what he wanted.

Carl Lewis's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics other
  100 metres, 200 metres, long jump and the 4x100 relay, matching Jesse Owens 1984
• Indoor long jump world record other
  Set on February 20, 1981 and still standing 1984
• A 65-competition winning streak in the long jump other
  Ten years unbeaten, ended by Mike Powell at the Tokyo world championships 1991
• 9.86 seconds for 100 metres other
  A world record at Tokyo. He called it the best race of his life 1991
• 4x100 metres relay world record of 37.40 other
  Anchored at the Barcelona Olympics 1992
• A fourth straight Olympic long jump title other
  Won at Atlanta at 35, his ninth and last gold medal 1996

• July 1, 1961 aged 0 Born in Birmingham to two track coaches His mother had hurdled for the United States at the 1951 Pan American Games.
• 1979 aged ~18 Breaks the national high school long jump record days after graduating He chose Houston to be coached by Tom Tellez.
• 1980 aged ~19 Makes the Olympic team and cannot go The United States boycotted the Moscow Games.
• 1983 aged ~22 Wins three golds at the first world championships in Helsinki
• August 1984 aged 23 Takes four gold medals in Los Angeles and is booed for passing jumps
• September 27, 1988 aged 27 Given the Seoul 100 metres gold after Ben Johnson tests positive His own 9.92 became the world record.
• August 1991 aged 30 Runs 9.86 in Tokyo, then loses the long jump to Mike Powell Powell broke Bob Beamon's 23-year-old record and ended a 65-meet streak.
• July 29, 1996 aged 35 Wins the Atlanta long jump at 35 for a ninth gold medal
• 2003 aged ~42 Documents surface showing three failed stimulant tests at the 1988 trials The Olympic committee had accepted a herbal supplement as the explanation.
• 2023 aged ~62 Becomes head track and field coach at the University of Houston

• Jesse Owens 1913–1980
  Track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, defying Nazi ideology. matched his four golds
• Wilma Rudolph 1940–1994
  Sprinter who overcame childhood illness to win three Olympic gold medals and become an international symbol of Black women's athletic excellence. earlier American sprint champion
• Michael Phelps b. 1985
  Swimmer who won 23 Olympic gold medals, the most by any athlete in history. passed his Olympic gold medal count
• Jim Thorpe 1887–1953
  Native American athlete who won Olympic gold medals and excelled in multiple professional sports. earlier American Olympian across events
• Donald Trump b. 1946
  Businessman, media personality, and 45th and 47th president whose populist movement transformed American politics. publicly opposed