Teammates Did Vote Lewis Off Relay Team, Smith Says

Calvin Smith, the world record-holder in the 100-meter dash, Friday refuted Carl Lewis’ contention that the Olympic champion’s teammates did not vote to kick him off the 400-meter relay team for the 1985 World Cup meet at Canberra, Australia.

“When I came back to the United States,” said Smith, a member of the relay team, “I read that Carl said there was no vote.

“But there was a vote. The vote was that if he didn’t come to practice, he shouldn’t be on the team.”

Lewis chose not to participate in practice--and Smith, Harvey Glance and Kirk Baptiste voted not to have him on the team.

Lewis was replaced by Dwayne Evans, and the United States team went on to win the relay in 38.10 seconds, the fastest time in the world last year and the fourth-fastest in history, behind clockings by three other American teams.

“He (Lewis) should have come to practice, just like the rest of us,” said Smith, who set the 100-meter world record of 9.93 in 1983 but was ranked No. 2 in the world, behind Lewis, that year.

“He said that he and I had done some handoffs in the past, but because we had done them a year ago didn’t mean we didn’t need more work,” Smith said.

Smith pointed out that Lewis was a member of the team that competed against the Soviet Union in Japan before the World Cup meet--and that team ran only 38.28.