By Admin 
Not too many people would know about Frederick Carlton Lewis, a 64-year-old athletics coach at the University of Houston. Does not ring a bell, right?
Let’s try again. The aforementioned gentleman is also known as Carl Lewis. It is not a name taken lightly in the sporting world; it belongs to a legend who ruled the tracks in 100 metre and 200 metre race, broke world records for fun and continues to be the proud owner of the longest world indoor long jump mark (8.79 metre) for the last 41 years.
Carl Lewis celebrates with the American flag after winning the gold medal in the 200 meters at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles on August 04, 1984.
(Published in The Sportstar on January 06, 1990)
PHOTO: ALL SPORT / THE HINDU ARCHIVES
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ALL SPORT
He hung up his boots in 1987, but Lewis has been a lot more than just a sporting icon. He has been an actor, politician and a mentor to multitudes who dream of reaching the pinnacle of sports. But all through it, speed has been his identity, his whole self — so much so that he dismisses the suggestion of trying his hand at golf, that favourite sport for retired athletes as being “too slow”.
So, when he was named the international brand ambassador for the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon (VDHM), a race that is 21-kilometre long, it was a surprise as much to him as everyone else. “I am horrible. You would never want to see me run distance. It’s just a painful sight. Part of the reason I don’t like to watch a lot of distance running is because I wasn’t very good at it,” he quipped.
(FILES) Carl Lewis of the US celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the men’s 4x100m relay final at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona on August 8, 1992. A legend of 20th century track and field, US star athlete Carl Lewis won nine Olympic golds and was eight times crowned world champion. Graceful and instantly recognisable with his million-dollar smile, long legs and crew cut, he sat out the 1980 Moscow Games due to the US Cold War boycott (Photo by Ron KUNTZ / IOPP / AFP)
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RON KUNTZ
The disclaimer in place, the showman in Lewis is quick to take over, all six-foot-two-inches of him and still built like the hulking mass he was, and there is no holding back the punches. Lewis has always been known to speak his mind, courting controversy as much as applause, and his interactions on a whirlwind tour of Delhi were no different. It even included a walk down the ramp donning an exclusive Sahil Kochhar creation at a fashion showcase by Puma to celebrate the 20 years of VDHM.
NEW DELHI, 10/10/2025: Sportsman of the century and International Event Ambassador, Carl Lewis speaks during a Press Conference ahead of the milestone 20th edition of the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon 2025, at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Friday, October 10, 2025. Photo: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR / The Hindu
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SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
“I am not going to eat anything for the rest of the day today, I want to look good up there,” Lewis laughed. But all through, the sportsman in him took precedence, both in his hopes from the future and his disappointments in the present.
“If I was around now, I would have a lot of followers. I was all over the place. I was in music and entertainment. I wanted to entertain on the track. But it never affected the core performance. Now, what I see when our women get on the track, they’re just like makeup and everything. And it’s ridiculous. I say, ‘you’re not focused’. They say, ‘I’m going to look beautiful’,” he said about how athletes’ perceptions on what is important has changed.
“And, I tell them every time, I have never seen anyone on a podium that isn’t beautiful. I don’t care what they look like. A Martian will look great on the top of a podium with their anthem being played. But now you see how social media has changed, because it’s all about how you present yourself to other people,” he added, disapproval clearly evident both in his voice and face.
Carl Lewis looks up at the scoreboard during the Seoul Olympic athletic final of the men’s 100 M Dash at the Olympic stadium in Seoul, South Korea, on September 24, 1988.
(Published in The Hindu on May 16, 1991).
PHOTO: UNI / THE HINDU ARCHIVES).
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UNI
It might sound misogynistic and politically incorrect but Lewis’ disapproval of the social media is gender, age and profession agnostic. “The challenge is that society is not telling kids they’re wrong about anything. They’re not holding them accountable or pushing them. I think we are underselling the world’s children, especially in America. The kids are spoiled, they can’t do anything. They’ve got mental health people everywhere. Kids can take so much more. They’re more resilient, smarter. But we’re almost teaching them not to be able to handle things, so when they do have issues, they can’t handle it,” he declared.
And he wears his politics on his sleeves, much like everything else. The eyes gleam, the voice gets passionate. “What social media did was to take away excellence and replace it with winning. The people with the most followers are clowns. So now athletes think that a million followers replaces excellent performance… We’re in a situation where there’s so much going on simply because of reality shows and social media. If we didn’t have reality shows, we wouldn’t have that thing in office in the United States, because everyone knew he was a clown,” Lewis thundered.
(FILES) US’s Carl Lewis jumps 8.56 meters in the qualifing round of the long jump event at the 3rd World Athletics Champioships in Tokyo on August 29, 1991. With the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, a suspended memory resurfaces, that of the mythical long jump competition of August 30, 1991. An epic duel between Carl Lewis, the invincible finally beaten, and Mike Powell, the outsider who flew to 8.95m. A record set in stone. (Photo by Toshifumi KITAMURA / AFP)
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TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA
That said, he is confident of having at least two-three of his trainees on the track when the Los Angeles Olympics come around in three years’ time. And then, he said, he would be done. “I may not do anything, focus on myself. I have a nine-year-old granddaughter, that’s something I’ll be looking at. Whether I like it or not, I’m going to be me the rest of my life.”
So, beyond the track, spotlight, politics and showmanship, who exactly is Carl Lewis? “A homebody. I like to be home. I come home every day, I’ve had someone cook for me since the mid-80s. Every day I go to practice with the kids, I leave around the same time, every day. I come home for dinner and I don’t ask her, I don’t tell her what to cook. She cooks whatever, I take a nap, at 5 o’clock I’m back up and that’s it. That’s who Carl Lewis is.”