Lewis May Turn Back the Clock

In 1984, he did what only one other track-and-field athlete had ever done: He won four gold medals in a single Olympics.

Next September, he’d like to do what no other Olympic track-and-field athlete has ever done.

Win four more gold medals?

Well, possibly. But if Carl Lewis just repeats as winner in any of the individual events he won in ‘84, he will have made history. Nobody has ever won consecutive gold medals four years apart in the 100 or 200 meters, or the long jump.

Some great runners and jumpers have tried. The Soviet Union’s Valeriy Borzov swept the gold in the 100 and 200 at Munich in 1972, but the best he could do at Montreal four years later was a bronze in the 100. Andy Stanfield won the 200 at Helsinki in 1952 and was second at Melbourne in 1956.

But speed kills. Or, at least, dies. The long jump would seem less ephemeral. A skill that depends not solely on speed or strength, but on craft would seem less likely to erode quickly.

Ralph Boston, as graceful a competitor as ever came down a runway, made the event an art form, and made the best charge at a repeat performance with a gold at Rome in ‘60, a silver at Tokyo in ’64 and a bronze at Mexico City in ’68. Ralph was like Sam Snead in golf. The rhythm remained long after the music had stopped.

So, Carl Lewis is bucking the tides of history at Seoul this September.

But he’s bucking more than that. He’s bucking the talents of a man who clipped a 10th of a second off the world record in the 100 meters at the World Championships in Rome last fall.

Now, that, for track and field, is a little like hitting 70 home runs in a season, throwing in 110 points in a game in the NBA, shooting a 57 in the Open or throwing or catching 10 touchdowns in a Super Bowl. World records in the 100 are supposed to come down by milliseconds a decade, not a 10th overnight.

To give you an idea, the Olympic 100-meter record of 10.8 seconds in 1900 had come down to only 9.9 in 1968 (at 8,000 feet). It had come down just 9/10ths of a second in 68 years.

Ben Johnson took it down a 10th in one afternoon from 9.93 to 9.83 in one stunning run on the banks of the Tiber.

You would think this would set the competition to singing “Arrivederci, Roma,” waving goodby to the event and wondering if it was too late to turn to shotputting or the decathlon. Why play cards with a guy with a checked vest and a gold watch? Why bet into a hand with two aces showing?

Carl Lewis seems ready to buck the house. It would seem to be a neat problem for Carl.

He is in this position: It is likely that, in South Korea, it will not be possible, because of the times and number of heats, for him to go for his quadruple. He will have to pass up one of his events--the 100, 200, relay or long jump.

The answer would seem to be evident. Ask him something hard.

Carl Lewis skips the 100, right? Carl Lewis doesn’t need any silver medals. Carl Lewis does not enter races to finish second. Carl Lewis tied the world record for the 100--he really broke it, because it had been set at high altitude--when he ran a 9.93 at Rome. Except he finished daylight behind Ben Johnson’s 9.83.

Now, anything that can run a 9.83 hundred--and talk--is not something you’d want to run up against with your reputation at stake in the Olympics.

Unless you’re Carl Lewis. And you want to be known as the greatest track man in Olympic annals.

If Lewis passes up anything at the Seoul Games, it will be the 200, an event he could very likely win. He made his sentiments known after he won last Sunday’s 100 at UCLA in 10.13. Why is he skipping an event he could win to challenge the blur from Canada? Well, first the likelihood is that the 200 will conflict seriously with the long jump.

“The long jump is my favorite event,” Lewis says. “It’s more intricate, it provides more of a challenge.”

Well, why not give up the 100, then? Surely, he must concede something to to a man who runs 9.83s?

Lewis smiles and says: “I don’t concede anything to him. He ran a perfect race under perfect conditions at Rome. I didn’t run my best race at Rome. And I had a 9.93.”

Lewis is so unconvinced that Ben Johnson is any 10ths of a second better than he is that he is trying to lure the Canadian into a pre-Olympic series of races, in Paris, Lausanne, Zurich--or a street corner in Calistoga.

They will not meet there. But they will meet in Seoul later this summer. In the 100. At least, Carl Lewis will be there. He has a date with history that Jesse Owens couldn’t keep because of World War II.

“I want them to know Carl Lewis is here and it’s Carl Lewis they’ll have to beat,” he says.

Ben Johnson may find he has to clip another whole 10th of a second in Korea or finish where he did in the ’84 Olympics--two places behind Carl Lewis.