A Brief Chat With Carl Lewis
August 5, 2011 1:00 am
Reported by Megan Hetzel
Photo by Giancarlo Colombo/Photo Run)
Carl Lewis is often rated as the greatest track and field Olympian of all-time. He won nine Olympic gold medals, including four at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and four consecutive ones in the long jump in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996. He also won eight World Championships golds between 1983 and 1991. He was a “Track & Field News” Male Athlete of the Year three times in a row, and “Sports Illustrated” named him “Olympian of the Century.” Lewis was interviewed in connection with his role as a spokesperson and ambassador (along with Rafer Johnson) for the Hershey Track & Field Games North American Final Meet, a gathering for children ages 9 to 14 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Could you tell me about the Hershey Track & Field Games program and how you’re involved?
Carl Lewis: Well, first of all this is my sixth year. I was looking at that today, and I couldn’t believe it. Yeah, six years ago I got involved with it for a couple of reasons. Number one, they reached out to me through a number of intermediaries and asked if I was interested. Basically it fits the narrative that I’ve always done since my retirement as well as with my foundation of dealing with kids and youth and family and exercise and fitness, and that’s the focus of my foundation. So this is the sixth year, but what’s great about this year is that we’ve really expanded, and I’m really excited. I’ve now got on the board of the Hershey Track and Field Games. I’ve been working more closely, directly with Rafer Johnson, someone I’ve always admired, and working with the kids and being involved in that program. So it’s really been tremendous. It’s exactly what I enjoy doing. It’s what I do on a daily basis back in New Jersey because I’m a volunteer coach at my high school. So it all fits just right in, and it’s wonderful seeing these kids every year. I was involved in the Jesse Owens Games when I was younger. (The Hershey Games) a similar type of program, and to see these kids doing the same thing, it’s really exciting. I know how excited they are.
How does this program relate to your own childhood and your own upbringing?
CL: Well, I grew up running track, and I started at about eight or nine years old …. I met Jesse (Owens), and I was able to qualify and go to San Francisco for the Jesse Owens Games. It’s a very similar program, except we didn’t get chocolate, and we didn’t come to Chocolate World. We just went to a city. But it’s very, very similar, and it’s just tremendous that here I am x-amount of years later, and that was in the '70s, and now here we are in the 2000s, and I’m working with kids doing the same type of thing. For me, I kind of look back and say, “Wow, this is what a lot of the athletes or the adults were thinking and looking at and what they felt when I was competing as a teenager back in those days.”
What is the importance of this program in terms of the kids as well as to the world of track and field?
CL: The great thing about this is that it’s bigger, I wouldn’t say bigger than track and field, that’s an unfair assessment, but it’s really about running, jumping, and throwing, and track and field is a very important component. When people think of track and field, they think of running down the track and who’s the fastest and you go to the World Championships. Well, some of the kids in this program will definitely do that because they have in the past and will in the future. But for most of the kids, the focus is running, jumping and throwing, and as you may know, the events are different. They have the standing long jump instead of the running long jump, and they have the softball throw.
So these (events) more mimic what you’re going to do in all sports. I think a lot of the kids, when we get up to 13 or 14 years of age, which is the last year of Hershey, in track and field, a lot of these kids either stay in track or go to another sport. But the vast majority ultimately ends up going to other sports, and they kind of leave track and field behind. Whereas in Hershey, with the softball throw and the standing jump, you’re really preparing those kids more for these other sports. I think the biggest lesson in life that you get in all sports is the camaraderie with the teammates, all that stuff. But they understand that we’re going to stop at 14 (years old), if you go on and become a world class athlete, that’s great, but if you go on and become a football player and you learned something here, or baseball or whatever, or to just go on and become an executive. So it’s that kind of thing, where it prepares these kids for life, because the focus is running, jumping and throwing.
You announced earlier that you were going to run your first marathon this year.
CL: I’m not sure where I’m going to run it, but in my 50th year, I said that I would like to finish a marathon. Houston is definitely one of the logical places because I’ve lived there a long time and obviously spent a lot of time there. I know that marathon well.
What’s the status on your training and how have you been preparing for that?
CL: It’s funny, marathon runners train, the rest of us just work out, so I wouldn’t put what I would do at all in the category of training. For me, my motto is I’m not going to be the first to start, I’m not going to be the last to finish. That’s it, that’s all I’ll promise anyone. I think if I finish, I will have accomplished something. Because really, two years ago, I established that I wanted to do something for the rest of my life that I never thought I would do, and I never thought I would finish a marathon. So, I’m doing it for that purpose, which I guess is why most of the people do it. Most people go and say, “Hey, it’s something I never thought I could do,” or, “Can I go and finish it?” So, that’s what I’m trying to do.
Well good luck with that!
CL: Oh, I’ll need it!