July 30, 1996
One for the ages
4TH LONG-JUMP WIN GIVES LEWIS NINE OLYMPIC GOLDS
By KEN FIDLIN -- At The Olympics
ATLANTA -- You don't have to like Carl Lewis. But on this night of nights, as his unmatched Olympic career passed into history, you had to admire him.
Sixteen years. Four Olympiads. Nine gold medals. The greatest track and field athlete of this, or perhaps any other, era. Give him his due.
Lewis closed out his spectacular, tumultuous career on the international track and field stage in style, winning the gold medal in the Olympic long jump just one more time.
Would you have expected anything less from The Man?
On his third jump of a potential six, Lewis unloaded a leap of 8.50 metres (27 feet 10 3/4 inches) and it easily was good enough to stand up against the 13-man field. Fellow American Joe Greene was the closest to Lewis at 8.24 metres, nearly a foot less.
"I've had countless wonderful Olympic experiences," said Lewis afterward, "and you want them to last forever. But I sure wanted that competition to end after the third round."
In essence, it did. Lewis earned his fourth straight Olympic long jump championship without lifting a finger in the final round. One by one, his challengers fell by the wayside.
Mike Powell, the world record holder, was expected to take a run at Lewis. But Powell came up lame after his fifth jump. He gamely tried to jump one final time, but did a face-plant in the pit, clearly favoring his left leg.
Michael Johnson, the American sprinter, is trying to make Atlanta his personal domain. It was ironic, then, that just a few minutes before Lewis' title was confirmed, Johnson won the 400 metres in Olympic-record time. But even then, he couldn't eclipse Lewis.
As great as Johnson is, at 28 he has one gold medal. At the same age, Lewis had seven, competing in two such divergent disciplines as sprinting and long jump.
The animosity between the two men is palpable. While Lewis still was doing victory laps around the stadium, Johnson was down in the interview room, suggesting it was time for Lewis to step aside.
"As for Carl Lewis trying to keep being the premier athlete of track and field," said Johnson, rather unkindly, "I think he should step down from that. I'll put my name up there with the greatest names in track and field history and that includes Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens."
With all due respect to Johnson, he is not in Lewis' league, except in the area of self-promotion. In fact, every time Johnson cashes one of those huge endorsement cheques, he should say a prayer to Carl Lewis.
It was Lewis the athlete, Lewis the outspoken personality, Lewis the entertainer who is most responsible for the marriage between the corporate world and the Olympic arena.
If Lewis has a lasting legacy beyond his legendary achievements on the track and in the long jump pit, it is the financial bonanza for the athletes who trail in his wake.
"He is a god," said Powell, Lewis' longtime rival. "Carl has a special place in history all his own."
And that is another thing about Carl Lewis at 35. He no longer is so universally despised, Johnson notwithstanding. Maybe despised is too strong a term. But for much of Lewis' career, he was cold and ruthless and aloof and abrasive. He made more enemies than friends.
Now, at the end and no longer dominant, it is easier for people to be reflective. Lewis himself has noticed it.
"I know people are looking at me differently," he said. "Maybe some of it is because of my age. Maybe life has changed me. But maybe people also have realized the amount of work and commitment it takes to be an Olympian and maybe they appreciate that.
"I can't go to the local gas station without somebody wishing me good luck."
Last night, 80,000-plus wished Lewis good luck.
At 35, he is not the brazen kid of 19 who started rubbing people the wrong way as soon as he grabbed a spot on the ill-fated 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
He is not the obnoxious superstar who, at 23, owned the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
He is not the sanctimonious whiner of 1988 who, at 27, backed into the 100-metre gold, making the Ben Johnson scandal even more impossible to bear for Canadians.
"I know I've grown as a person," Lewis said. "I don't dislike anybody. There is no bitterness in me. I'm proud of my accomplishments and I'm proud that I've experienced the things I have."
Reluctantly, almost grudgingly, the feeling is mutual.
