Lewis’ New Hurdle : After Four Gold Medals, He Wants to Try Another Event

Carl Lewis has already secured his place in athletic history. He accomplished what he set out to do in the Olympic Games here last summer, winning four gold medals and matching Jesse Owens’ performance in the 1936 Olympics.

Lewis has no peer as a sprinter or long jumper. He virtually destroyed what was regarded as the best 100-meter sprint field of all time in the Olympics.

That was his first gold medal. He was virtually unchallenged in getting three more in the 200, long jump and in anchoring the U.S. 400-meter relay, which ran a world-record time.

Arguably, Lewis could be called the greatest combination track and field performer of all time.

But the more Lewis does, the more that is expected of him. Now that the Olympics are out of the way, how about some world records?

Lewis, only 23, is not putting any pressure on himself. Looking ahead to this year’s outdoor season, he said:

“I no longer have the goal of trying to win four gold medals and go undefeated. I’m looking forward to having fun, doing some different things and improving on all my personal performances.”

Lewis’ idea of fun is to find a another event that he may be able to dominate. Perhaps the hurdles. That’s right, Lewis is trying to perfect his hurdling technique in practice for the 110-meter race.

“Things are going a lot better than I thought they would,” he said. “I’ve been working pretty hard at it. There is a strong possibility that I may compete in a meet as a hurdler, perhaps before the TAC meet in June.

“I haven’t hurdled since my junior year in high school. I remember that I wasn’t afraid of the hurdles, but I also don’t remember what I did wrong. My high school coach backed me off the hurdles because he wanted to make a sprinter out of me.”

Now if Lewis really wants to do something different, perhaps he should try the 400-intermediate hurdles, the exclusive domain of Edwin Moses.

Lewis laughed and said: “I don’t want to be that different.”

As for world records in his familiar events, Lewis isn’t making any predictions. He says that isn’t his style. Still, he seems confident.

“There is no question that I can put the long jump out farther than 28-10 (his personal best),” he said. “Twenty-nine feet is something I’ve always wanted to do. So that’s a major goal for me.

“As far as the sprints are concerned, I know I can improve in the 200. I loved the Coliseum during the Olympics. I don’t think there is a better place in the world to run the 200. The Coliseum is big and open and the turn is real wide.”

Lewis plans to return to the Coliseum for the 200 in an international meet June 8. He also plans an assault on Bob Beamon’s world long jump record of 29-2 1/2 in the Pepsi Invitational May 18 at UCLA. But first things first. Lewis will be at the Mt. San Antonio Relays Sunday to run the 100 meters and a leg in the 1,600-meter relay for the Santa Monica Track Club.

Lewis is constantly threatening world records, but they’ve just eluded him.

Calvin Smith is the world record-holder in the 100 at 9.93. Pietro Mennea has the world 200 record at 19.72. Both of those marks were set at high altitude, as was Beamon’s record in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Lewis has a best time of 9.97 in the 100. He has run the 200 in 19.75, and has long jumped 28-10 twice, outdoors and indoors.

With the exception of the 100, those marks are the best ever achieved at sea level.

Lewis says that he won’t purposely seek a high-altitude site just to get a world record, that breaking records at sea level is a greater challenge.

He is only a few hundredths of a second and five inches away from achieving his goals. He is making subtle refinements to improve in all of these areas. His analyses:

--100 meters: “I looked at my race in the Olympics (he won in 9.99) at least 50 times and wondered why I didn’t get out of the blocks better than I did.

“It was probably because my buttocks went up one inch too high in the set position. That was just enough to change my start and let Sam Graddy get a lead on me.

“Now, if I can keep my buttocks in the right place in the still position that could be a difference of five- or six-hundredths of a second.

--200 meters: “I jumped into the 200 by default. When I was 21, I was the No. 1 man in the world in the 100, but I hadn’t done anything in the 200. I tried it and it became addictive.

“Without a question, that was my best event last year (he recorded the second-, third- and fourth-best times ever at low altitude). What I had to do to improve in 1984 and keep it going in 1985 is to have the same style start that I have in the 100.

“I must make sure that I accelerate through the turn, not coming out too slow, or too fast. No surges. It must be a smooth acceleration through the turn and just relax in the straight. If I do that this year, I’ll be in great shape.

--Long jump: “Last year at the Pepsi meet, I was the best I’ve ever been. I fouled some jumps that I was certain were over the mid-29s range. But what hurt me was that I was off a little technically in my approach.

“I hit the board OK, but I surged a bit in the middle of my approach. Just that minor inconsistency in my approach is the difference. So that’s why I’m long jumping May 5 in a meet at Houston. If I’m going to do any surging, I’ll do it in that meet and get rid of it. If I’m consistent and have a smooth approach at Pepsi, it’s all over.”

Translation of all over: 29 feet plus.

Lewis said that his accomplishments in the Olympic Games have just started to sink in.

“When I look at films, I see how intense I was, and everybody else. I also see that the things I had to do at the time were correct,” he said. “I didn’t have time to second-guess myself. I’m really proud of myself for gearing for that particular situation.

“Now I think that when I set my mind to something, I can achieve it. The people went crazy when I was running the heats. So many people were rooting for me.”

Not all the time.

Lewis was booed for passing on four of his six allotted attempts in the long jump. The Coliseum crowd had anticipated that Lewis would try to break Beamon’s world record.

But Lewis won the event on his first jump at 28-0 , fouled on his second, and then called it a night to conserve his energy for the 200-meter heats two days later.

That shouldn’t have been such a surprise. It had been previously written that Lewis would adhere to such a plan.

“I was kind of caught off guard,” Lewis said. “Not by the people booing, but that some of the press people kept insisting that Lewis should have gone for the record and he was wrong.

“When the people booed, it was justifiable from their standpoint. But I also feel by the end of the 200 that most of them understood the situation. It was like they said, ‘Why, he’s back running again and we forgive him.’

“Before the Games, the question was, ‘Can Carl do it (four gold medals)?’ If I hurt myself in the long jump, I really would have been second-guessed.”

Lewis was also criticized by some for being aloof and arrogant, and for conducting himself as a product, using the Olympics as a tool for lucrative endorsements.

“I think many members of the press tried to create a situation where money was more important, not just for me but for every athlete at the Olympic Games,” Lewis said. “There was too much talk about endorsements. Like if you won a gold medal, you weren’t successful unless you went on and got an endorsement.

“That wasn’t fair. The athletes knew that possibility was there. But if you tell me that Mary Lou Retton stood at the end of the runway on her last vault and thought, ‘If I nail this, I’ll be a millionaire,’ I’ll eat your hat.

“People still want to talk to me about endorsements, and I say that it’s old news. People want to read what’s going on in 1985 and what type of goals and ideas I have as an athlete.

“That’s what is going to be everlasting. Not the endorsements I get here and there. We remember what Mary Lou Retton did on her last vault, not that she is on a Wheaties’ box.”

It has been written that Lewis did not reap the financial rewards he expected for his four gold medal performance. But Joe Douglas, Lewis’ manager, says that Carl is doing quite nicely in that regard.

Douglas said that Lewis has a contract with a soft drink company in Japan, the Suntory Corp., has agreed to a contract with a hair product, he’s involved in the development of a game about track and field, and he may be in a movie next September that has an adventure-mystery theme set in the Middle East.

“We’re satisfied with the financial arrangements since the Olympics,” Douglas said.

But Lewis probably won’t be satisfied until he stacks up some world records to complement his gold medals.

The world is waiting.