56 Fun Facts About Carl Lewis

Carl Lewis won his last Olympic gold, aged 35, at which city's Games?

Atlanta: the world-record holder and the reigning world champion both came in nursing hamstring injuries, and Lewis's third-round jump was enough to beat them.

Carl Lewis became a UN Goodwill Ambassador in 2009 for the agency fighting what?

Hunger: the Food and Agriculture Organization named him when more than a billion people were undernourished, and he helped launch its petition urging governments to make ending hunger their top priority.

About how many long-jump competitions in a row did Carl Lewis win over ten years?

65 in a row over ten years, one of the longest unbeaten runs the sport has seen; it took a world-record jump by a rival at the 1991 World Championships to end it.

Carl Lewis makes a cameo in Speed Zone, the 1989 third film in which comedy series about an illegal cross-country race?

The Cannonball Run trilogy ended with Speed Zone, in which every regular driver is arrested before the start and the sponsors have to scrape together a new field; John Candy stars.

Who coached Lewis at university and then for the rest of his career?

Tom Tellez, a specialist in biomechanics, reworked Lewis's technique in his freshman year so he could jump without pain from an old knee injury; Lewis won the national college title that season.

Why did Lewis miss the 1980 Olympics after qualifying in two events?

The US boycott of Moscow was President Carter's protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Lewis, then a college freshman, had to wait four more years for his Olympic debut.

Which tyre maker put Lewis in red high heels for its 1994 advert 'Power is nothing without control'?

Pirelli's point was that even a world-record sprinter is let down by the wrong equipment; 25 years later its annual report called the photograph one of the most extraordinary images in the company's history.

Which honour for America's top amateur athlete went to Lewis for his 1981 season?

The Sullivan Award followed a 1981 in which Lewis won both the 100 m and the long jump at the college championships, a double nobody had managed there for 45 years.

Whose 1968 long-jump record of 8.90 m did Lewis chase throughout his career?

Bob Beamon set it when Lewis was seven, and the boy marked the full distance out in his yard.

Which city hosted track and field's first World Championships in 1983, where Lewis won three golds?

Helsinki staged the sport's first full world championships; until then Olympic champions had doubled as world champions. Lewis won the 100 m, the long jump and the sprint relay.

Whose 1936 feat did Lewis match with four golds at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

Jesse Owens had met Lewis as a boy at youth track meets; in Los Angeles Lewis won the same four events Owens had in Berlin.

Why was Lewis booed during the 1984 Olympic long jump he won?

He passed his last four jumps because his opening 8.54 m already led and he was saving his legs for the 200 m and relay; fans who had come to see a world record booed.

In which stadium, also the centrepiece of the 1932 Olympics, did Lewis win his four golds in 1984?

Memorial Coliseum: the organisers were determined to avoid costly new building, so the old Olympic stadium was pressed into service again, and the Games finished with a surplus of more than $200 million.

Lewis's agent damaged his image in 1984 by comparing him to which pop star?

Michael Jackson was who his manager Joe Douglas hoped Lewis could match in earning power. Douglas said he was misquoted, but the line stuck, and the big American endorsements Lewis expected after four golds did not follow.

Which NBA team drafted Lewis 208th overall in 1984, though he had never played high school or college basketball?

The Chicago Bulls used their last pick on him in the draft that also brought them Michael Jordan, two months after an NFL team had drafted Lewis too. He never played in either league.

Which NFL team drafted Lewis as a wide receiver in the 12th round of the 1984 draft?

The Dallas Cowboys had done it before: two decades earlier they signed Olympic 100 m champion Bob Hayes, who won a Super Bowl with them as a receiver. Lewis, who had not played college football, never joined.

Which sportswear company did Lewis sign with after Nike dropped him?

Mizuno is Japanese, and Japan was where his endorsements flowed: with American advertisers staying away after 1984, most of his sponsorship money came from abroad.

Which Canadian beat Lewis with a 9.83 s world record at the 1987 World Championships in Rome?

Ben Johnson had been third behind Lewis at the 1984 Olympics. After the race in Rome, Lewis said there were gold medallists at the meet who were on drugs, without naming anyone.

What did Lewis place in his father's hand at his burial in 1987?

His 1984 100 m gold medal went with his father because the 100 m was his favourite event. 'Don't worry, I'll get another one,' Lewis told his mother, and a year later in Seoul he did.

Why did Lewis's 9.78 s at the 1988 Olympic trials not count as a world record?

It was wind-aided: the gauge showed a tailwind of 5.2 metres per second, more than double the 2.0 allowed for records, so the run counted as a trials win and nothing more.

Which British sprinter moved up to silver when Lewis inherited the 1988 Olympic 100 m gold?

Linford Christie had crossed the line third. When the winner was disqualified for a steroid, Lewis took the gold, Christie the silver and former record holder Calvin Smith the bronze.

Who beat Lewis to 200 m gold in Seoul in 19.75 s?

Joe DeLoach was Lewis's own training partner. Lewis ran faster than his winning time of 1984 and still lost the title by four hundredths of a second.

Why did Lewis never get to run the sprint relay in Seoul?

The US team was disqualified in a heat for a botched baton change, with Lewis held back for the later rounds, so the favourites and their anchor never reached the final.

What made Lewis 100 m world-record holder on January 1, 1990?

A rival's records were annulled: the sprinter who had beaten Lewis in 1987 and 1988 admitted to years of steroid use, so the IAAF wiped his records and Lewis's 9.92 s from Seoul became the world record.

Which club-mate broke Lewis's 100 m world record with 9.90 s in June 1991?

Leroy Burrell held it for just over two months before Lewis took the record back by beating him in the world final in Tokyo, 9.86 s to 9.88.

Lewis was the first man to retain the Olympic 100 m title; who was the next to do it?

Usain Bolt won it in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Lewis's own repeat came the hard way: he crossed the line second in Seoul and was given the title when the winner failed a drug test.

Who beat Lewis in the legendary 1991 Tokyo long-jump final, ending his ten-year streak?

Mike Powell needed a world record to do it: Lewis produced what has been called the greatest series of jumps in history, and Powell's 8.95 m still beat him and a mark that had stood for 23 years.

Lewis won the 1988 Olympic long-jump final after starting it within an hour of doing what?

Running a 200 m heat: Lewis was again chasing four golds, so his events overlapped, and he still won with 8.72 m.

Lewis failed to qualify as a sprinter for the 1992 Olympics, so what put him on the relay that won gold there?

A teammate's injury: Lewis was only an alternate until Mark Witherspoon tore his Achilles tendon in the 100 m semi-finals. Lewis then anchored the US to a world record of 37.40 s.

For which team did Lewis anchor a 4 x 200 m relay world record in early 1992?

He failed to make the 1992 US team in the 100 m or 200 m, finishing fourth behind Michael Johnson in the latter.

Which country's sprinters finally beat the 37.40 s relay world record Lewis anchored at the 1992 Olympics?

Jamaica ran 37.10 s at the 2008 Olympics, sixteen years on. That mark was later struck from the books, but by 2012 Jamaican quartets had taken the record below 37 seconds.

Which gymnast landed the Wheaties box after the 1984 Olympics while four-gold Lewis won no major US ad campaign?

Mary Lou Retton signed with Wheaties. Lewis, despite four golds, not only won no big American campaign but lost the deal he had, when his shoe sponsor stopped using him.

How did Lewis only just reach the 1996 Olympic long-jump final?

On his last attempt: one jump from going out in qualifying, he went through, then won the final the next night. He had only just made the US team too, finishing third at the trials.

Which discus thrower was track and field's first winner of four straight Olympic golds in one event, before Lewis?

Al Oerter won in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968. In Tokyo he threw in a neck brace and with a rib injury, and still produced the winning throw.

Why was Lewis left off the US sprint relay at the 1996 Olympics despite public lobbying?

He skipped the training camp that relay runners were required to attend, and had not qualified in the 100 m either. Without him the US finished second to Canada.

What did Lewis test positive for three times at the 1988 Olympic trials?

Ephedrine-type stimulants showed up at low levels after he took a herbal supplement. The US Olympic Committee ruled the use inadvertent and gave him only a warning, a decision that stayed private until 2003.

Which title did the IOC give Lewis in 1999?

Sportsman of the Century was the IOC's verdict. In the same year, Sports Illustrated gave its own Sportsman of the Century award to Muhammad Ali and named Lewis its Olympian of the Century instead.

What diet did Lewis adopt in 1990 and credit for his 1991 form?

Vegan from July 1990, after a nutrition doctor challenged him to commit to it. Lewis later wrote that his best year of competition was his first on the diet.

Why was Lewis removed from New Jersey's 2011 Senate ballot?

He failed the state residency requirement of four years. A federal appeals court ruled against him in September 2011 and he gave up the race.

Which post did Lewis take at his old university in 2022?

Head track coach: he came back to coach in 2013 and was given the top job in July 2022, after his predecessor left for Auburn.

In which New Jersey town did Lewis grow up and go to high school?

Willingboro is where his parents, both teachers, founded the track club he first ran for. They did not see Carl as the athlete of the family at first, and he took cello and piano lessons.

Which word completes the subtitle of Lewis's 1990 memoir Inside Track, 'My ___ Life in Amateur Track and Field'?

Professional: the title was a dig at a sport that still called itself amateur, though a shoe company had put Lewis under contract while he was still in college.

As of 2025, Lewis's world record in which event had stood since 1984?

Indoor long jump: his 8.79 m at New York's Millrose Games in January 1984 outlasted every other record he set, while the outdoor long-jump record he chased for years always escaped him.

Lewis's younger sister, a world championship long-jump medallist, later competed for the US in which winter sport?

Bobsled: every run opens with the crew sprinting beside the sled to push it up to speed before jumping in, so the sport prizes a track athlete's pace, and she made the US team.

Which sport did Lewis's elder brother Cleveland play for a living?

Soccer: Cleveland played for Memphis in the North American Soccer League, in a family where both parents coached track and both younger siblings became Olympic long jumpers.

What kind of object, found by a Japanese astronomer in 1992, was later named 39566 Carllewis after Lewis?

An asteroid: whoever discovers one earns the right to suggest its name to an international committee, which is how a sprinter's name ended up on a rock in the main belt.

At which multi-sport Games did an 18-year-old Lewis win long-jump bronze in 1979, eight years before taking two golds there?

Pan American Games: his mother Evelyn had hurdled for the United States at the very first edition in 1951. Carl's bronze came the summer he left high school, and in 1987 he returned for two golds.

Which Philadelphia meet in July 1980 gave Lewis a long-jump bronze instead of an Olympic debut?

The Liberty Bell Classic saw Lewis, 19, finish third in the long jump, the event in which he was soon to go ten years without defeat.

Which honour went to Lewis and every member of the 1980 US Olympic team?

Congressional Gold Medal: Congress voted it in July 1980 for the athletes, and so many were needed that the Mint struck them gold-plated instead of solid gold.

In which state did Lewis start university in 1979, a year before making his first Olympic team?

Texas: his college was the University of Houston, which later named its track and field complex after him.

Before Lewis, which 1980 Olympic champion was one of only two men to have jumped beyond 28 feet?

Lutz Dombrowski won the 1980 title with 8.54 m, then the longest jump anyone had made since 1968. Lewis, who had made the US team for those Games but never went, passed it the following June.

Which magazine named Lewis world Athlete of the Year from 1982 to 1984?

Track & Field News put him first three years running. Sports Illustrated's own award for 1984, the year of his four golds, went to two other Olympic champions instead.

Who won the 200 m at the 1992 US Olympic trials, where Lewis failed to qualify in either sprint?

Michael Johnson won in 19.79 s. Lewis missed the team in both sprints, was found afterwards to have a sinus infection, and went to Barcelona as a long jumper.

Which swimmer's career tally of Olympic gold medals did Lewis equal by winning the long jump in 1996?

Mark Spitz shared the record for Olympic golds with runner Paavo Nurmi and gymnast Larisa Latynina until Lewis, aged 35, joined them. A relay gold days later would have put him ahead, but he was left off the team.

Lewis matched Denmark's Paul Elvstrøm by winning an individual gold at four straight Olympics; what was Elvstrøm's sport?

Sailing: Elvstrøm won the single-handed dinghy class at every Games from 1948 to 1960, and was still an Olympian in 1988, aged 60, with his daughter as crew.

Which Indian spiritual teacher, an adviser to Lewis, had his weightlifting feats celebrated in the 2011 film Challenging Impossibility?

Sri Chinmoy took up weightlifting at 54 and taught Lewis to meditate. Lewis, a committed Christian, said the guru's teaching strengthened his faith, and he appears in the film.