Lewis will turn 35 just before the Games begin July 19. To compete in one more Olympics required a whole new source of motivation. It was not enough that this would be his fifth Olympic team (including the 1980 team that boycotted Moscow). Not enough that he might join a handful of American Olympians to win medals at four Games. Not even enough that two more Olympic golds would run his total to 10, topping distance runner Paavo Nurmi (The Flying Finn) on track and field’s all-time list. ““Now he’s found the motivation,’’ says Mike Marsh, Lewis’s training mate in Houston and himself a gold medalist in Barcelona. ““He’s going to conquer the demons of longevity.''
Lewis isn’t the type to duck demons. For almost two decades, he has fired broadsides at the barriers of his sport (and those who maintained them). ““I never accepted anything just because that’s the way it is,’’ says Lewis. He fought for above-the-table prize money, demanded more and better drug testing and urged special handling for superstars. He still commands major endorsement fees from Nike and Pirelli. He’s been immensely popular abroad, where track remains a big-time sport, but his brash style didn’t always endear him to American fans. That changed with his super effort in Barcelona, in what many thought was his Olympic finale. First he battled swirling winds to win the long jump; then he seemed never to touch the ground as he anchored the 4x100 relay team to a world record.
Lewis has never been as interested in being loved as in being legendary. Thus his bid for one last Olympic stage in order to alter the world’s view of aging athletes. ““I’m not afraid to fail,’’ he says. ““I decided that the only thing unacceptable was not to try.’’ There were plenty of folks, on and off the track, eager to convince him otherwise. It has been years since Carl was a serious contender for world’s fastest human. In 1992 he failed to qualify for the Olympics in either the 100 or 200. This past winter, when Lewis didn’t make the 60-meter finals at the national indoor championships, his sprinting career seemed over. But last month at the inaugural meet in Atlanta’s Olympic Stadium, Lewis arrived brimming with confidence and promising that his patented finish was back. ““I can catch people again,’’ he said. In the 100 he provided a demonstration. Though Lewis lost to Dennis Mitchell in a photo finish, his time – 9.94 – was his best performance since 1991, and it caught the attention of the world-class field. ““He sent a message,’’ said fourth-place finisher Jon Drummond, the top-ranked U.S. 100-meter man last year. ““You better train hard cause Carl ain’t joking.''
Lewis embraced a new regimen developed with his longtime coach, University of Houston’s Tom Tellez. His goal was to rebuild from scratch his 100-meter dash, which is at the core of his running and jumping events. He began to lift weights for the first time to boost his explosive power, fine-tuned his vegetarian diet and altered the position of his starting blocks a few centimeters. ““I had been on a very slow decline, but I didn’t know it because it was over a few years,’’ he said. ““I lost a little of a lot of things that added up to quite a lot. Now that I’m back I sure can tell the difference.''
The most important change, though, was in his attitude. ““Carl had become a little complacent,’’ says his sister Carol, herself an Olympic long-jumper. In recent years, he had a litany of excuses – allergies, back problems, leg problems, a car accident. But the biggest problem was boredom, which led to sporadic training. ““This year Coach T has been busting some humps,’’ says Lewis.
It helped that Carl has never been bored by an Olympics. So he decided to just keep running. He wanted to repeat the 100 so often, in practice and in competition, that he could stop thinking and ““run from instinct again.’’ Early this spring Lewis began showing up for small, local Texas meets – temperatures in the 40s and not a TV crew in sight – that he hadn’t competed in since he was at college. ““I’ve been doing strictly blue-collar work,’’ he says. ““I didn’t disappear, go to the Andes and reappear, some superhuman running 9.8.''
Lewis may enjoy his tenure as ““Mr. Olympics,’’ as he is wont to call himself. But he hasn’t had much fun watching Michael Johnson replace him as the nation’s premier track-and-field athlete. It was particularly painful last year when Lewis withdrew from the world championships with a leg injury, while Johnson became the first man ever to win both the 200- and 400-meter races. Lewis made it even worse by dismissing the meet as lacking in excitement, obviously meaning him. ““That’s not what I meant,’’ he now says. ““But they’re trying to make Michael the next Carl, and it’s unfair. Too much pressure.''
Perhaps, but Carl might do better to let that be Johnson’s worry. ““I enjoy a good rivalry,’’ says Johnson, who will duel Lewis in the 200 at the trials. ““When you know the two guys out there really don’t like each other, it makes for a great race.’’ By the time Lewis and Johnson match up in the final race, Lewis will already have competed in the 100 and the long jump. And by then everyone will know whether Mr. Olympics has stood the test of time.
He’s made every Olympic team since 1980 and already has won eight gold medals. Carl Lewis’s best times each year, in his two best events:
100-METER DASH LONG JUMP Age 18-23 (in seconds) Age 18-23 (in meters) 1979 10.30 8.13 1980 10.21 8.11 1981 10.00 8.62 1982 10.00 8.76 1983 9.97 8.80 1984 9.99 8.80 Age 24-29 Age 24-29 1985 9.98 8.62 1986 10.06 8.37 1987 9.93 8.75 1988 9.92 8.76 1989 10.05 8.54 1990 10.05 8.51 Age 30-35 Age 30-35 1991 9.86 8.87 1992 10.07 8.68 1993 10.02 Did not compete 1994 10.04 8.66 1995 10.12 8.00 1996 9.94* 8.34* Source: Mike Takaha, University of Houston *Wind-Aided Marks.
