Carl Lewis: A Farewell

It’s hard to imagine a four-time Olympian and eight-time gold medalist being an underdog in anything, let alone the event he’s best known for. Yet that was the role Carl Lewis occupied when he stepped onto the Olympic Stadium field for the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Lewis, whose legendary status in U.S. athletics history was solidified long before the Games, was given little chance to win a medal, let alone a gold medal—and for good reason.

At the U.S. Olympic trials Lewis qualified for the team by just 1 inch (2.5 centimetres). In the Olympic preliminaries he entered his final jump in 15th place, seemingly out of the finals—until he pulled off a leap of 27 feet 2.5 inches (8.29 metres). In the Olympic finals he ran through his first jump and turned in a ho-hum 26 feet 8.5 inches on his second leap. However, as he had so many times before in his 16-year Olympic career, Lewis captured the hearts of his faithful followers, saving his best for last with a leap of 27 feet 10.75 inches (8.5 metres). The mark was well off any records or personal bests, but it would survive as the gold medal jump.

The victory gave Lewis his record-tying ninth gold medal in track and his fourth straight in the long jump. It was the shortest of his four gold medal jumps and the first time since the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal that the long jump champion didn’t leap 28 feet, but that hardly mattered when Lewis stood on the podium.

The victory led many to speculate that Lewis might anchor the 4 × 100-metre relay and thus have a chance to become the only Olympian to win 10 gold medals. When Lewis expressed interest, he was deemed greedy by critics, who reminded Lewis that he hadn’t even practiced with the team. U.S. officials decided not to include Lewis on the relay team, which ultimately won the silver medal. Lewis officially announced his retirement from the sport in 1997.