Lewis Will Run on U.S. 400-Meter Relay Team, Huntsman Says

Carl Lewis, seeking to win four gold medals for the second consecutive Olympics, definitely will run on the 400-meter relay team, U.S. Olympic track and field Coach Stan Huntsman said Thursday.

Huntsman also said that Calvin Smith and Dennis Mitchell will be a part of that team for the final in the Seoul Games, but the fourth spot still has not been decided.

A flap over Lewis’ status developed last Friday when Russ Rogers, a U.S. assistant coach in charge of the sprinters and relay teams, refused to let Lewis and his Santa Monica Track Club teammate, Joe DeLoach, compete on the U.S. 400-meter relay team in the Ivo Van Damme meet at Brussels.

Rogers said he made the decision because Lewis, winner of the 100-meter dash in last month’s U.S. Olympic trials, and DeLoach, winner of the 200 meters in the trials, did not practice with the team at its European training base in Davos, Switzerland.

Asked if he would still run the anchor leg in the Olympics after the dispute, Lewis said then: “At this point, no. At this point, I am just going to focus on the three individual events (the 100, 200 and long jump), and not the relay.”

A couple of days later, Rogers said that despite the furor, Lewis still was a member of the relay team, adding, “No person in their right mind is going to kick Carl off the team.”

Lewis, Mitchell and Smith finished 1-2-3 in the 100 at the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis, followed by Albert Robinson, DeLoach and Mike Marsh. The 4-5-6 finishers, along with Emmit King and Lee McNeill, who were seventh and eighth, are battling for the fourth place on the relay team.