Carl Lewis Biography

Carl was born July 1, 1961 in Birmingham Alabama. He was the third child of four; he had two older brothers and a younger sister. When Carl was young his family moved to Willingboro New Jersey. His parents had both ran track in college and when they arrived at New Jersey they founded the Willingboro track club and started coaching young teens. Carl was small when he was a kid but when he hit his growth spurt he soon became the top-ranked high school track athlete in the country. In 1979 he went to the University of Houston on an athletic scholarship and was coached by Tom Tellez. He qualified for the 1980 Olympics only to have President Jimmy Carter to have them cancelled. In 1982 Lewis went to run for the Santa Monica Track Club in California. Carl continued to work close with Tellez. In 1984 Carl was to go to Los Angeles for the Olympics in four events: the long jump, 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m relay. He received gold medals in all of his events, an accomplishment only previously achieved by Jesse Owens. He received 2 gold and 1 silver medals in the 1988 Seoul games. During his running career he joined Lay Witness to Christ and became good friends with Sri Chimnoy. He took lessens for singing and acting and produced a couple of songs. In Osaka, Japan Carl’s long jump record was ended by Mike Powell however he broke the world record in the 100m. He later retired that year.

Fireside 1992

ISBN 0-671-78024-7

BACK TO TOPIC INDEX

BACK TO MEMORIAL HOME PAGE

RETURN TO BOOK REVIEW

RETURN TO AUTHOR BIO

RETURN TO THIRD TOPIC

Created by: Kyle Phyfer