Beyond the track, the spotlight, politics and showmanship, who really is Carl Lewis?

Very few people would know about Frederick Carleton Lewis, the 64-year-old athletics coach of Houston University. The bell doesn’t ring, right?

let’s try again. The above gentleman is also known as Carl Lewis. This is not a name to be taken lightly in the sporting world; This belongs to the legend who ruled the track in 100m and 200m races, broke world records for fun and remains the proud owner of the longest world indoor long jump mark (8.79m) for the last 41 years.

He retired in 1987, but Lewis has been much more than just a sports icon. He has been an actor, politician and a mentor to those who dream of reaching the pinnacle of sports. But through it all, speed has been his hallmark, his whole personality – so much so that he dismissed the suggestion that he try golf, a favorite sport of retired athletes, as “too slow”.

So, when she was named the international brand ambassador for the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon (VDHM), a 21 kilometer long race, it was as much of a surprise for her as it was for everyone else. He quipped, “I’m terrible. You would never want to see me run any distance. It’s just a painful sight. One of the reasons I don’t like to see me run very far is because I wasn’t very good at it.”

(Files) Carl Lewis of the United States celebrates after crossing the finish line to win the men’s 4×100 meters relay final at the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona on August 8, 1992. A 20th-century track and field legend, American star athlete Carl Lewis won nine Olympic golds and became world champion eight times. Attractive and instantly recognizable with his million-dollar smile, long legs and crew cut, he skipped the 1980 Moscow Games because of the American Cold War boycott (Photo by Ron Kuntz/IOPP/AFP) Photo Credit: Ron Kuntz

Disclaimers are in place, the showman in Lewis quickly takes over, at six feet two inches tall he’s still built like a giant, and there’s no stopping the punches. Lewis has always been known to speak his mind, evoking applause as well as controversies, and his conversation on the stormy tour of Delhi was no different. This also included walking the ramp wearing a special Sahil Kochhar outfit at a fashion showcase for PUMA to celebrate 20 years of VDHM.

New Delhi, 10/10/2025: Athlete of the Century and International Event Ambassador, Carl Lewis speaks during a press conference ahead of the 20th edition of the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon 2025 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Friday, October 10, 2025. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar / The Hindu | Photo Courtesy: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Lewis said with a laugh, “I won’t eat anything all day today, I want to look good out there.” But all the while, the player inside him took priority, both in his hopes for the future and his disappointments in the present.

“If I was around now, I would have a lot of followers. I was everywhere. I was into music and entertainment. I wanted to entertain on the track. But it never affected the main performance. Now, when I see when our women come to the track, they’re just like in makeup and everything. And it’s ridiculous. I say, ‘You’re not focused’. They say, ‘I’m going to look pretty’,” he said. How athletes’ perception on important things has changed.

“And, I tell them every time, I’ve never seen anyone on stage who isn’t beautiful. I don’t care what they look like. A Martian would look great on top of the stage with his national anthem. But now you look at how social media has changed, because it’s all about how you present yourself to other people,” he said, disapproval clearly visible in both his voice and face.

Carl Lewis looks at the scoreboard during the Seoul Olympic athletic finals of the men’s 100 meter 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). , Photo Credit: UNI

It may seem misogynistic and politically incorrect but Lewis’s disapproval of social media is agnostic of gender, age and profession. “The challenge is that society is not telling kids they’re wrong about anything. They’re not holding them accountable or putting pressure on them. I think we’re underestimating the children of the world, especially in America. Kids are spoiled, they can’t do anything. They have mental health people everywhere. Kids can take on a lot. They’re more resilient, smarter. But we’re almost teaching them to be able to handle things. no So when they have a problem, they can’t handle it,” he said. declared.

And like everything else, he wears his politics on his sleeve. Eyes shine, voice becomes emotional. “What social media did was 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 excellence… We’re in a situation where there’s a lot going on just 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 everybody knew he was a clown,” Lewis. Said roaring.

(Files) Carl Lewis of the United States jumps 8.56 meters in the qualifying round of the long jump event at the 3rd World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on August 29, 1991. With the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, a suspended memory of the legendary long jump competition of 30 August 1991 resurfaced. An epic duel between the undefeated Carl Lewis and Mike Powell, the outsider who flew 8.95 metres. A record made on stone. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP) | Photo Credit: Toshifumi Kitamura

He said, he is confident that at least two-three of his trainees will be on the track when the Los Angeles Olympics are held in the next three years. And then, he said, it will be done. “I can’t do anything but focus on myself. I have a nine-year-old granddaughter, she’s the one I’ll keep an eye on. Whether I like it or not, I’ll be with myself for the rest of my life.”

So, beyond the track, the spotlight, politics and showmanship, who really is Carl Lewis? “A homebody. I love being at home. I come home every day, someone has been cooking for me since the mid-80s. Every day I go to practice with the kids, I leave at about 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 anything, I take a nap, at 5 I come back and that’s it. That’s Carl Lewis Are.”

published – October 11, 2025 07:19 PM IST