Bengaluru: Frederick Carlton (Carl) Lewis visited India two decades ago with a keen interest to see the Taj Mahal. A multiple medalist in Olympics and World championships Carl took part in IAAF Permit Meets at Delhi and Pune during that occasion. The superstar in sprint races has an easy victory at Pune. But what surprised everyone was his second victory on that day after the real race! In a noble act Lewis endorsed behind his winner\u2019s cheque \u201cPay to Mother Theresa\u201d and requested the organizers to forward it to the Missionaries of Charities, that made him win the hearts of those athletes and fans assembled there.<\/p>\n
Several years after that above incident, Carl remains the same man when facing the questions from the knowledgeable Indian media at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Karnataka state capital on Friday afternoon. Lewis came here as an Event Ambassador to promote the already popular TCS World 10K road race. A goodwill ambassador with the United Nations, Carl is a multi-faceted personality who keeps himself busy with various philanthropic and sports promotion activities throughout the World.<\/p>\n
Talking to media this afternoon, Carl narrated how he got involved in athletics from his young age. His parents William and Evelyn, as well as sister Carol, were all involved in athletics. Carl set his foot at the age of 13 as a long jumper. While at University of Houston he met Tom Tellez, who went to become Carl\u2019s coach throughout his athletics career.<\/p>\n
Lewis could have been an Olympic champion at the age of 19 if the United States had not boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980. However like every other American track and field athlete Carl utilized the inaugural World championships in athletics at Helsinki three years ago by secured three gold medals through victories in 100m, long jump and as a member of 4x100m relay. Carl attained the \u201cLegend\u201d status when he won four gold medals, adding the 200m win apart from the three other events mentioned above, when Lose Angeles organized the Olympic Games the next year. By winning four gold medals he equaled the achievement of his idol Jesse Owens, who did it 48 years earlier at Berlin in 1936.<\/p>\n
Although Ben Johnson halted Carl\u2019s golden run in sprint races during the 1987 Worlds (Rome) and 1988 Olympics (Seoul), following the Canadian athlete\u2019s admittance of having used performance-enhancing drugs proved Carl an athlete par excellence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to rank the 1991 World championships in Tokyo the best in my career\u201d he revealed in today\u2019s press conference. In Tokyo he clocked a world record 9.86 secs to win the 100m. However his compatriot Mike Powell shocked Lewis in the long jump as the former eclipsed Bob Beamon\u2019s 23-year-old world mark with a leap of 8.95m. Carl settled with a silver medal 4 cm behind with teammate Larry Myricks (8.42) made it a podium sweep for USA on the Japanese capital.<\/p>\n
Expressed his joy for having represent here as an Event Ambassador in TCS World 10K, Carl eagerly looking forward an exciting race on Sunday as the elite starting line-up is having two former champions and a world leading performer in half-marathon. <\/p>\n
Event Ambassadors of past editions: Bengaluru: Frederick Carlton (Carl) Lewis visited India two decades ago with a keen interest to see the Taj Mahal. A multiple medalist in Olympics and World championships Carl took part in IAAF Permit Meets at Delhi and Pune during that occasion. The superstar in sprint races has an easy victory at Pune. But what surprised everyone was his second victory on that day after the real race! In a noble act Lewis endorsed behind his winner\u2019s cheque \u201cPay to Mother Theresa\u201d and requested the organizers to forward it to the Missionaries of Charities, that made him win the hearts of those athletes and fans assembled there.<\/p>\n Several years after that above incident, Carl remains the same man when facing the questions from the knowledgeable Indian media at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Karnataka state capital on Friday afternoon. Lewis came here as an Event Ambassador to promote the already popular TCS World 10K road race. A goodwill ambassador with the United Nations, Carl is a multi-faceted personality who keeps himself busy with various philanthropic and sports promotion activities throughout the World.<\/p>\n Talking to media this afternoon, Carl narrated how he got involved in athletics from his young age. His parents William and Evelyn, as well as sister Carol, were all involved in athletics. Carl set his foot at the age of 13 as a long jumper. While at University of Houston he met Tom Tellez, who went to become Carl\u2019s coach throughout his athletics career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-out-of-box"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>
2009 \u2013 Maurice Greene (World champion and record-holder in 100m)
2010 \u2013 Shawn Crawford (200m Olympic Gold Medalist in Athens 2004)
2011 \u2013 Constantina Dita (Olympic Marathon champion in Beijing 2008)
2012 – Linford Christie (Olympic Gold Medalist in Barcelona 1992)
2013 \u2013 Maria Mutola (800m Olympic Champion in Sydney 2000)
2014 \u2013 Carl Lewis (Multiple World and Olympic champion)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"