It’s weird that a talented sprinter and jumper would choose to coach distance especially cross country. I’ll admit distance athletes are lazy and don’t require the motivation to practice and try hard and train like young sprinters do. Cross country and distance is a self hating sport. The better you do the more you hurt lol. Unlike sprinting if your loosing it’s not over in 30 seconds lol. You got 15 painful minutes of everyone seeing you loosing and it’s not like you can bitch out and quit in front of everyone either no one likes
I met Carl at a 10k race in Santa Monica, California back in 1980 , and talked to him for about fifteen minutes as we both did our pre-race stretching....he seemed very down-to-earth, and very polite, if a bit on the quiet side...very focused...well, a few minutes later , we lined up to race, and I ran with him for about 2 miles before his pace was too fast for me to sustain any longer, and he soon disappeared out in front.... afterwards , I saw that he won that race first overall , and I went up to him and congratulated him, and left that day feeling like I just met someone who would go far in their running career. And, sure enough.....
Rode in a van with Carl’s dad in Memphis. The Willingboro track club was shuttling from the motel to the track. Every kid was a perfect gentleman. They taught values, not just winning.
I was so young in the 80s, so I don't remember any of this. It is nice to be able to reflect on it by watching RU-vid videos now. Carl is an inspiration.
The best fact by far which totally rams home his ability in long jump is the fact his winning jump in 1992 Barcelona Olympics would have been still the winning distance in every Olympics since....now that's talent
That's crazy. Also, his winning jump from Barcelona, he came off the board so far off. It's rumor, as per Dwight Stones, had he jump right off the board, with no inches to spare, he might of threaten Mike Powell's WR jump from the previous year.
@@user-bx5dm4op3p Carl was different class from Mike, too. Sure Mike made (and still has) the world record and was near the top for many many years. But Carl was The top, a superior athlete, let alone that his best (official & unofficial) performances happened that day in Tokyo, yet he lost !
Absolutely. ✅Graceful ✅Agility ✅Speed ✅Endurance ✅Aerodynamism 101% ✅Good looking ✅Charismatic ✅Humbleness ❤Legend❤Icon❤His names alone were to be branded in the Olympias for ever❤
@@lesquale128 Grow up. Anabolics are part of all athletism sports. Ben Johnson went way over the recommended and tolerated dosage. Carl is still the crowned KING.
I was a bus driver for the Olympic Athletics at the 1984 Olympics. I was behind the scenes when I saw Carl Lewis walking in the middle of 4 bodyguards. I ran up to the group and said "I'm suppose to get your photo"' Carl smiled so pretty for me; One of my greatest moments.
I am still mad how he behaved towards Ben Johnson. Knowing now Lewis was just as loaded as Johnson and then playing the victim of a juicer and even before the Olympics throwing shade at Johnson. Then getting gold 1988 that way condemning Johnson was pathetic. He still hasnt owned up to that.
I'm going to show you how much you don't know what you're talking about. Those of us who follow the sport know that Ben was busted for stanazolol, a performance enhancing drug. If Carl was "just as loaded" as Ben, what performance enhancing drug was Carl busted for?
@@BSimp4242 he was busted for ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and propalomine . That was what they caught him for and kept it under wraps . If that would have lead to more testing more would have been revealed. It was more than an open secret that the Santa Monica Track Club was a government protected PED abusing facility. Look it up
You're opening up a huge can of worms here. Don't get me started. And if you're going to go down this road then hold the same standard for everyone in every sport, every time. From what I've read what he had in his system was not enough to be a ped. I won't say he's a good person but he is a fantastic athlete. And where people draw their lines on drugs and drug testing/abuse is hugely inconsistent.
There's no way you win gold medals in that era with massive PED use. Masking techniques were very effective and the US sanctioning bodies were looking the other way when something did show up in a test. And of course he was a great athlete - that's not a debate. If everyone is juiced and he wins, he's the best athlete.@@gregrichards1601
I remember this like it was yesterday. I even remember him going to the Jay Leno or David Letterman show a month or so before. We all wondered why he was even trying... Leno or Letterman asked him if he really thought he could win, and he responded "It's only now that you're asking that I realize that losing is a possibility..." The man was that confident... Losing was not even a thought although he was 35 years old competing against guys 10-15 years younger... One month later he achieved the unthinkable!!!!
Sat with him for over an hour in Moorestown mall talking about his book Inside Track. Will never forget and have respected his entire career to this day. Truly a wonderful human being and will always be worldclass.
@@oldfart5063 I hope your comment was ironical because he sure was. Back then the US was fighting for everyone to get tested while their "universal soldiers" remained untouched.
PROOF, please. I don't know who you are, but you can't make that statement without proof. If you expect me to take your word for it, your sadly mistaken.
@@user-ve4ig6pw1s It is well known that the US teams, during this period, were dope fiends. You may deny it and bury your head in the sand but it is true. It was an era where Russian athletes were excelling (because they too were drugged out) and the US needed upend Russian superiority. Just like they did by "landing" on the moon.
King Carl Lewis. A legend in his own right and my long jump GOAT for longevity. He won nine Olympic gold medals and a silver during the 1980s and ’90s. No one else will have that bragging right of 4 consecutive Olympic gold medals in the Long jump. No one comes close...
It catches up to you, beyond incredibly hard on the body, being a top athlete in 1 let alone 2 let alone 4 different events, which is why no one else in history has ever done it.
Yup, it was also because it was a period the the west (US/UK) were just competing against themselves as they owned the PED industry and drug controls. Some went haywire like Joyner which eventually cost them their lives.
@@listrahtes I remember Carl Lewis saying “Team GB sprinter Linford Christie hasn’t been caught…yet”. Wouldn’t surprise me if they were all taking substances which were borderline illegal.
@@MrCol104 Well its proven with Lewis. His positive tests before the Olympics are well known now thats why I cant see anything else than a snake listening to him knowing he was just as full with PED and then played the victim towards other sprinters and threw dirt at them. Christie didnt do that.
Amazing how he could just explain away the reason for a Banned Substance being in his system and then point fingers at others who were known or suspected to be using/having the said Substance in their bodies. 😅
I am happy to see Carl all these years later, full of life, energy and pride, and knowing that he made us incredibly proud too, and we still are. That moment is forever etched in my mind. I was 18. :-)
I jumped my pb on my last ever long jump in my life and won the county championship. I never jumped again. Carl Lewis and Larry Myricks were my heroes.
I wanted to talk about how great of an athlete he was and how we all rooted for him so many years etc...but all I can say is how come after so many decades he still dont have one wrinkle and looks so young still !!!!!!
A long time ago there was an Imax film called To The Limit about the human body, and it included a shot of Carl running in super slow motion. It was a beautiful thing to watch.
Besides being unquestionably the greatest track & field athlete of all time, he is also among the elite athletes of all time. Unfortunately, most people casual track and field and sports fans in general either dont realize or forgot how dominant and spectacular this guy was.
@@user-cx4ll4rj1t the International Amateur Athletic Federation and US Olympic Committee disagree. I wonder who is more credible in determining illegal PED use 🤔
The greatest? Did you eliminate Bolt from consideration because you suspect him of using PEDs? Based on performance on the track, nobody has been more dominant than Usain Bolt...awarded gold in every Olympic event that he competed in from 2008-2016, olympic and world records in every event, did something (i.e. won the Olympic 100 m and 200 m) 3 times that nobody (including Lewis) had even been able to do once and put up times that--as Ato Bolden said--were in "the realm of video game speeds."
Carl Lewis is the best long jumper in history, if we look at consistency. Yes, Bob Beamon did something that changed perhaps the entire sport. Breaking the world record by 55 cm is incredible. I've watched on Norwegian TV, the audience seems like they didn't understand what was really happening. Carl Lewis carried this story forward. Carl Lewis is a great Legend, 1983-1996. I personally think the media is not good enough to honor great sporting heroes from the past, but we also have this problem in Norway. It must be said that it is incredible that Bob Beamon still holds the Olympic record in the long jump. The jump and the story behind it will perhaps become as legendary as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:)
“Lewis was among the named athletes and Exum's documents revealed that at the 1988 Olympics trials he had three positive results on a combined test for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine.”
CL was juicing almost his entire career, so were his competition. So I give him credit for beating most of those that were like him. But, then I put him in the same camp as Armstrong in cycling.
Carl Lewis always seemed very disciplined and sure of himself and its interesting to hear his reflections of that time. It was wonderful to watch him win.
The big mistake Johnson did that time was he took too much "roids", rest of the athlete guys that time inc. Lewis was smarter user of "roids"......BUT he probably never gonna admit that :()
@@Geir-rl8mp He has a bunch of truths to tell...he can come out the closet and also explain his PED USE...either that, or he was clean and beating athletes who are on PEDS....AT 36 YEARS OLD...LOL GTFO
@@Geir-rl8mpNot quite. Ben was on gear but he was smart enough to get off it 6 weeks before the competition so he'd test clean. He'd done it for the last 2-3 years without fault. Carl Lewis got a buddy to spike Ben's drink after the 88 race. He slipped a pill into his beer. It's all in a documentary called "9.79". Lewis even says "If you wanna play the game, sometimes you get played".
Juicing: he was not juiced in the 87 worlds when Johnson broke the WR. In 1988 he probably different to compete with Johnson. Same with 92 with Linford Christie.
We as British felt the same way about him too. I suspect that many people around the world believed in him and admired him. He gave the world so much inspiration.
I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT CARL IS SAYING,THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME,WHEN I WAS 19 IN 1958,I BROKE THE WORLD JUNIOR RECORD IN THE POLE VAULT AND I WALKED AWAY AND NEVER VAULTED AGAIN,NOTHING MORE TO PROVE TO MYSELF
