Carl Lewis biography
Carl Lewis, in full Frederick Carlton Lewis, (born July 1, 1961, Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.), American track-and-field athlete, who received 9 Olympic gold medals throughout the Eighties and ’90s.
Lewis certified for the U.S. Olympic workforce in 1980 however didn't compete, due to the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games. At the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Lewis received gold medals within the 100-metre (9.9 sec) and 200-metre (19.8 sec) races, within the lengthy bounce (8.54 metres [28.02 feet]), and as a member of the U.S. 4 × 100-metre relay workforce, which he anchored. Lewis turned the third track-and-field athlete to win 4 gold medals in a single Olympics, becoming a member of Americans Alvin Kraenzlein (1900) and Jesse Owens, the latter of whom received the identical 4 occasions on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin that Lewis received in Los Angeles.
Lewis added two extra gold medals and a silver medal on the 1988 Games in Seoul, changing into the primary Olympic athlete to win consecutive long-jump gold medals, with a leap of 8.72 metres (28.61 ft). Lewis had the 4 greatest jumps within the competitors, and his Olympic title was a part of an extended string of consecutive long-jump victories that prolonged over a number of years throughout the Eighties. Lewis’s different gold medal on the 1988 Games got here within the 100 metres (9.92 sec), after Canadian Ben Johnson, who had received in world-record time (9.79 sec), was disqualified three days later after testing constructive for anabolic steroids. Lewis settled for a silver within the 200 metres.
At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Lewis received two extra gold medals, together with his third consecutive long-jump title, with a leap of 8.67 metres (28.44 ft). Again anchoring the U.S. 4 × 100-metre relay workforce, Lewis received his eighth gold medal because the workforce set a world and Olympic report of 37.40 sec. At age 35 Lewis was a shock qualifier within the lengthy bounce for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, the place he “ran through” his first bounce and notched a ho-hum 8.14 metres (26.71 ft) on his second leap. However, his third leap of 8.5 metres (27.89 ft), although effectively off any information or private bests, held up as the highest bounce and earned Lewis his ninth gold medal. In 1997 he retired from competitors. Two years later he was named Sportsman of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.
Lewis appeared in quite a few movies and tv sequence, typically portraying himself. He was energetic in varied charities, and in 2001 he established the Carl Lewis Foundation, which centered on selling health. In 2011 Lewis, a Democrat, introduced that he was operating for a seat within the New Jersey state Senate. However, his candidacy was later challenged over the state’s residency requirement, and in September Lewis withdrew from the race.