Carl Lewis

Olympic Speaker and nine-time Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis is a retired track and field athlete with an impressive athletic career. Lewis qualified for his first Olympic Games in 1980 but did not compete due to the US boycotting the Moscow Games. He made his Olympic debut four years later at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles where he declared his mission to match track star Jesse Owens’ record of four Gold medals in a single Olympics. Lewis earned the four Gold medals easily in the 100 meter, 200 meter, long jump and 4 x 100 meter relay events where he anchored his team and crushed the world record with a time of 37.83 seconds. Carl Lewis went on to participate in the next three Olympic Games, 1988 in Seoul and 1992 in Barcelona where he took two Gold medals each, and 1996 in Atlanta where he won his final Olympic Gold medal.

Outside of sports, Carl Lewis established himself in the film and television world as well. In 2002 Lewis starred as a security man in the made for TV movie, Atomic Twister. He also appeared in Alien Hunter, Speed Zone, Perfect Strangers, and the motion picture Material Girls where he starred alongside Hilary Duff and Anjelica Huston. Other television appearances include ESPN’s College GameDay, 30 for 30, CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Chelsea Lately, the Olympian’s Edition of Weakest Link, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, You Don’t Know Jack, Hollywood Squares, and many more. Carl Lewis is the author of Inside Track: My Professional Life in Amateur Track and Field and One More Victory Lap with co-author Jeffrey Marx. Carl returned to his alma-mater in 2013, and has served as an assistant on the Houston Cougars’ Track & Field team since.