Friday 5th August 2011
The second part of this post (men’s predictions here) looks at the likely contenders in the women’s track events at the World Championships. So in order of importance distance, here they are.
100m
Winner: Carmelita Jeter
Outside Chance: Veronica Campbell-Brown
This is Jeter’s year. She has been superb over 100 and 200 metres but she is going to win this one. Campbell-Brown will win if Jeter has an off day.
200m
Winner: Veronica Campbell-Brown
Outside Chance: Allyson Felix
Under normal circumstances I would pick Felix, but it looks as though the schedule for this year’s championships will make things very difficult for her. It will be a fantastic feat if she can emerge victorious in all of her events after competing 7 times in 8 days, but she has not performed well on occasions where she has attempted the double this year. The sensible money is on Veronica Campbell-Brown to win this one.
400m
Winner: Allyson Felix
Outside Chance: Amantle Montsho
Allyson Felix will win the quarter-mile. She should be fresh for this event, which takes place at the the start of the championships. Amantle Montsho has been on good form this year and will be her main rival for gold, as well as the two Russian athletes who have also gone under 50 seconds this year.
800m
Winner: Kenia Sinclair
Outside Chance: Caster Semenya
Kenia Sinclair has not been beaten this year at 800m or 1500m. Convincing enough? Five women have run faster times, four of which were posted in the same race at the Russian Championships. One of those women is Maria Savinova, who looks the most likely to beat Sinclair. Obviously you cannot ingore Caster Semenya, the reigning champion. On a good day she will beat everyone; on a bad day she won’t get through her heat. It remains to be seen whether Semenya can recapture her form of two years ago.
1500m
Winner: Maryam Jamal
Outside Chance: Gelete Burka
Another athlete whose performances vary from world-class to mediocre is Maryam Jamal. However, she found her form at the right time in the last two world championships and should do the same this time. Gelete Burka is only ranked 17th in the world this year so is probably a surprising inclusion on this list. After being pushed off the track in the 2009 final, she will be desperate to gain the gold medal that she will feel belongs to her.
5000m
Winner: Vivian Cheruiyot
Outside Chance: Meseret Defar
Neither Vivian Cheruiyot nor Meseret Defar has been beaten this year but only one can win in Daegu. I pick Cheruiyot to win, as she is the defending champion and has just run a super-fast 14:20 in Stockholm. It is hard to see beyond those two, but 10,000m champion Linet Masai may threaten the two favourites.
10000m
Winner: Vivian Cheruiyot
Outside Chance: Sally Kipyego
With Tirunesh Dibaba absent, this is Cheruiyot’s to lose. She will want to push to pace from the gun to avoid a final-lap burn up against Linet Masai, who finished strongly to win two years ago. Sally Kipyego and Shalane Flanagan have posted sub-31 times this year and will rightly consider themselves contenders.
Marathon
Winner: Edna Kiplagat
Outside Chance: Bezunesh Bekele
Edna Kiplagat has run three major marathons to date, winning in LA and New York and setting a 2:20 personal best in London earlier this year. She is the one to watch, whilst the main competition will come from Ethiopia.
Steeplechase
Winner: Sofia Assefa
Outside Chance: Birtukan Adamu
What? No Kenyan winner? Having predicted a Kenyan winner for all the distances so far, why have I not picked the world leader Milcah Chemos? Well, Sofia Assefa has been in good form in 2011, only failing to break 9:30 once (at altitude in March) and looked strong winning in Birmingham last month too. It is probably foolish to say this but she might cause an upset. Her young compatriot Adamu set a world junior record this year.
100m Hurdles
Winner: Sally Pearson
Outside Chance: Tiffany Ofili-Porter
Sally Pearson is having a great season. At the Birmingham Grand Prix she set a national record and world-leading time of 12:48 and is the one to beat. Americans Dannielle Carruthers and Kellie Wells are her main rivals and Tiffany Ofili-Porter, formerly an American herself, could sneak a medal if she continues her current good form.
400m Hurdles
Winner: Kaliese Spencer
Outside Chance: Perri Shakes-Drayton
Kaliese Spencer has been the most consistent hurlder this year and leads the Diamond League points race. Zuzana Hejnova is second and has posted some impressive times this year, particularly for someone competing in so many events. Perri Shakes-Drayton has good closing speed and recently won both the 400 and 400 hurdles at the British Trials.
I’ll be pleased if half of these are correct.
Disclaimer: the author of this blog is not responsible for the money that will inevitably be lost if you put bets on all of these athletes to win. In fact, you are probably better off betting against all of my suggestions.
Thursday 4th August 2011
I’m really excited about the World Championships, which take place in a few weeks’ time. Most countries have had their trials now and the Diamond League takes a break after this weekend’s Crystal Palace meet. It’s then time for the athletes to put in a few more weeks of hard training before Championships begin at the end of the month. Here are my predictions for what will happen in each track event, starting with the men.
100m
Winner: Asafa Powell
Outside Chance: Christophe Lemaitre
Asafa Powell leads the world rankings for 2011 with 9.78 and has been the most consistent performer in the event this year. With Usain Bolt seemingly struggling to regain his 2009 form which helped him break his world records, and with Tyson Gay missing through injury, the door is open for the bridesmaid Powell to shake off his unwanted ‘choker’ tag and win. Christophe Lemaitre could threaten him though; despite only being the 9th fastest man in the world this year, Lemaitre has shown he can run well in championships and appears to be peaking at the right time.
200m
Winner: Usain Bolt
Outside Chance: Walter Dix
This is not a vintage year for the men’s 200. To date, only two men have broken 20 seconds, which does not compare favourably with the 7 last year or 6 the year before. For this reason, Bolt should have enough to win, though Beijing bronze medallist Walter Dix may provide a bit of competition.
400m
Winner: LaShawn Merritt
Outside Chance: Kevin Borlée
LaShawn Merritt returns from his drugs ban and could well win one of the most open events in this year’s championships. His chances could well be ‘enhanced’ by the absence of compatriot Jeremy Wariner. Tied with him in the world rankings list is Kevin Borlée from Belgium who had an excellent 2010 in which he won the 400m at the European Championships. It will be interesting to see how Ocsar Pistorius does, even though he shouldn’t be there.
800m
Winner: David Rudisha
Outside Chance: Abubaker Kaki
Kaki’s name is only included here for consistency’s sake. In reality, no one but Rudisha will get a look in. The only question mark over Rudisha is his record in unpaced races, but given he has run over a second quicker than his nearest rivals this year (Kiprop doesn’t count as he’s not competing in the 800), it is hard to see him having any problems. This is a race for silver.
1500m
Winner: Silas Kiplagat
Outside Chance: Nick Willis
Silas Kiplagat has been on fire this year. He made his breakthrough in 2010, bursting onto the scene with a 3:29 as an unknown 20 year old. He backed this up with Commonwealth gold and some dominating performances on the circuit this summer. The Canova-coached athlete has shown he can win slow races with his brutal kick, or lead from the front and burn his rivals off. Nick Willis is a strong tactician and could work his way through the field to win a tactical race.
5000m
Winner: Bernard Lagat
Outside Chance: Isiah Koech
Mo Farah is a marked man. It feels wrong as a fellow countryman of his to doubt his ability to win gold but all I can see is a target on his back. While my heart says Farah, my head says Lagat (and it may still turn out that Farah doesn’t run if you believe some reports) Bernard Lagat has won this title before and is in his best ever 5k form. And he still has the speed over the last 200 to shake off anyone who is still left with him. If not old man Lagat, then young man Koech could prevail. Whether or not you believe his alleged age of 17, his performances this year have been outstanding and he poses even more of a threat to Lagat than Eliud Kipchoge or Tariku Bekele do.
10000m
Winner: Mo Farah
Outside Chance: Zersenay Tadese
In 2003, Haile Gebrselassie was king of the track. Rarely beaten over any distance, but especially the 10,000m, he was not only challenged but beaten by a young pretender to his crown. His name was Kenenisa Bekele. In 2011, Kenenisa Bekele still holds that crown, along with the notable distinction of never having been beaten over 25 laps. This year, the pretender goes by the name of Mo Farah and is in the form of his life. No one has beaten him this year and he will not be beaten here either. The three former world cross country champions Merga, Bekele and Tadese will make it a thrilling race but the Londoner will come out on top.
Marathon
Winner: Gebre Gebremariam
Outside Chance: Abel Kirui
Gebremariam has impressed since moving from track and cross country to the roads, and his two efforts over 42 km have resulted in a win at New York and a third place at Boston, where he was only beaten by the two fastest men ever. He should secure victory here to add to his other world title in cross country. Abel Kirui should be in good shape too, having paced Moses Mosop to his 30k world record at Eugene and could defend the gold medal he won in Berlin two years ago. Hard to see beyond Kenya or Ethiopia in this event.
Steeplechase
Winner: Brimin Kipruto
Outside Chance: Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad
You can’t go for anyone else. Kipruto was amazing at the Monaco meet two weeks ago and was a decent final barrier clearance away from breaking Shaheen’s world record. Paul Koech, the man who helped Kipruto to that time, must surely be given the wildcard spot by Athletics Kenya if their chasers are to deliver the anticipated 1-2-3 in Korea. Mahiedine Mekhissi has also been in good form this year and if he can show some more of his now famous ‘fighting spirit’ he could be the one to break the Kenyan stranglehold on this event.
110m Hurdles
Winner: David Oliver
Outside Chance: Andy Turner
Never previously a follower of hurdles, I have been gripped by the event this year, such is the quality of the competition. The winner could come from one of three countries: China (Liu), Cuba (Robles) or the USA (Oliver). As the only man under 13 seconds this year Oliver looks the most likely, but it is a brave person who bets against either of the two previous Olympic champions. Andy Turner could return to Britain with a medal round his neck is he has a very good day.
400m Hurdles
Winner: Bershawn Jackson
Outside Chance: Dai Greene
Jackson’s record in major championships is unmatched by any of his nearest rivals, so he should go in as the favourite. LJ Van Zyl and Angelo Taylor look like his main rivals based on performances this year. Dai Greene is a very strong finisher and a good lane draw in the final might give him a chance of a medal.
I will write a follow-up post on September 5th when I have been proven wrong.
We just don’t jump like we used to. I’m talking about human beings here, not me personally, though it is also true that I do not jump like I once did. I jumped off the last two steps on my front porch the other day, and my left knee has not stopped hurting since. Still, in this particular case, I mean mankind.
You know how people seem to smash track records and swimming records and touchdown and home run records every other day? Not true when it comes to jumping. The men’s high jump record was set by Javier Sotomayor in 1993, the women’s by Stefka Kostadinova even further back, in 1987. Both the men’s and women’s triple jump records were set back in 1995. The women’s long jump record was set by Galina Chistyakova in 1988.
And at the end of this month, Mike Powell’s remarkable 8.95 meter jump — that’s 29 feet, 4 3/8 inches — will have been the world record for 20 years. Twenty years! Heck, Bob Beamon’s legendary long jump record only lasted 23. And unless something changes, this one will last longer than Beamon’s. Much longer.
See, the amazing thing is not that Mike Powell’s record hasn’t been broken. It’s that nobody has even come close. Nobody has jumped 29 feet since that day in Tokyo in 1991. Nobody has come within eight inches of the record since that day. At the 2008 Olympics, 27 feet, 4 inches was good enough for gold — the worst gold medal performance in more than 35 years. As the greatest long jumper who ever lived likes to say: “These guys come out now, jump 28 feet, take their gold medal and go home like they did something.”
And the greatest long jumper who ever lived — and the 30-foot jump that never happened — is at the heart of our story.
* * *
For narrative purposes, there have been three long jumps in history that have mattered. There was Jesse Owens’ eight-meter jump in Ann Arbor in 1935. That world record — and to be precise it was 8.13 meters (26 feet, 8 1/16 inches) — lasted 25 years, until Ralph Boston broke it, and then broke it, and then broke it again. Boston set the world record in the long jump six times between 1960 and 1965, until the Soviet Union’s Igor Ter-Ovanesyan actually TIED him at 8.35 meters (27 feet, 4 3/4 inches). That was the record when the second important jump happened.
That second jump, of course, was Bob Beamon’s absurd, mind-blowing, unbelievable (in the true sense of the word) 29-foot jump in Mexico City in 1968. Old sportswriters might tell you that there have been only a few moments in sports — Beamon in Mexico City, Secretariat at the Belmont, John McEnroe at Wimbledon, Michael Johnson running the 200 in Atlanta — that so transcend the moment that they feel like time travel. Beamon’s jump smashed the world record by almost two feet, and it must have felt like someone coming back from the future and competing. Beamon’s jump of 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches was also more than two feet longer than he would ever jump again, and it would be a dozen years before anyone would jump within a foot of that record.
The third jump was Mike Powell’s in Tokyo in 1991. For a long time, Beamon’s record was considered unbreakable. Like many things considered unbreakable or unreachable, it became an obsession. And like many obsessions, it created a genius. The genius’ name was Carl Lewis.
Lewis won 10 Olympic medals — nine of them gold. (Walter Iooss Jr. SI)
Lewis is often remembered, as he almost certainly should be, as one of the greatest American athletes ever. He might be the greatest. He has a case. Lewis won 10 Olympic medals — nine of them gold. He won eight golds at the World Championships. In 1984 — four years after the U.S. had boycotted the Moscow games, and in a year when the Communist bloc nations returned the boycott — he pulled the Jesse Owens quadruple, winning gold in the 100, 200, long jump and the 4×100 relay. In 1988 he won gold in the 100 retroactively when Ben Johnson tested positive for a banned substance. Later, Lewis would be given the 100-meter world record as Johnson’s was wiped off the books. He set the world record for himself in the 100 at the World Championships in 1991.
But, in the end, perhaps, we all are SOMETHING. Husband. Mother. Teacher. Role model. More than anything, Carl Lewis was a long jumper. That was his art. That was his science. That was his core. The long jump seems like the simplest thing — it’s just running and jumping, the sort of thing that kids do in the backyard. But at the highest level, at its peak, the long jump is about running and jumping only in the way that playing concert piano is about playing chopsticks. In the long jump, every stride has a different purpose, different rhythm, different meaning. The last two steps must be as exact as an operation’s incision. The takeoff, the kick, the use of arms, the body position, the landing, all of these and countless more things matter in a thousand different ways. And, perhaps most significantly, the athletes jump off a board, and if any part of their foot — even the very tip of their shoe — touches over the line, it is a foul and does not count.
Now, it is true that many of the best jumpers ever simply were (and are) the best athletes — men and women who could create so much speed and lift that they could be a touch sloppy with their form and technique and still overpower the sport. But Carl Lewis worked on his long jump again and again, obsessively, compulsively — a man possessed by perfection. It’s funny because in public he gave off an image of not caring at all — the crazy hair, the wild uniforms, the nutty statements, the arrogant postures. But when no one was watching, when it was just him and his coach and the track, Lewis was tireless. He would train for the sprint races, and then watch others go home. And then he would train for the long jump, working that stride, refining the knee bend, calculating the physics of the takeoff. It’s almost certain that no had ever worked so hard to jump beyond the limits of gravity.
And that’s why for 10 years, he did not lose a single meet. Not one. Before the 1988 Olympics began, Carl Lewis had the six longest legal jumps not taken at altitude (Beamon and Soviet Robert Emmiyan had both jumped 29 feet, but both were at altitude). Lewis then beat a marvelous jumper named Larry Myricks at the 1988 Olympics. He won the long jumps at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics too — and when talking about the most amazing achievements in the history of athletics, you might want to start here. Before Lewis, after Lewis, no man had ever won long jump gold medals at TWO Olympics. The sport simply features too many variables and demands, too many things to go right, to repeat. Carl Lewis won FOUR STRAIGHT long jump golds. It’s like painting the Sistine Chapel at least twice.
Precision is the reason. It was Lewis’ meaning. While other amazing jumpers could not make consistently legal jumps — they would often foul by the smallest margins — Lewis was almost freakish in his exactness. “The way I looked at it,” he says, “fouling was unacceptable. That’s all. Unacceptable. And so I didn’t foul. Think about it: If you foul, it doesn’t count. I would hear people say, ‘Oh, I had a long foul.’ No you didn’t. You didn’t have a jump. That was my attitude. You cannot foul.”
On Aug. 30, 1991, in Tokyo, Carl Lewis had the single greatest long-jumping day in the history of the world. Understand at that moment in time, the longest jumps ever were:
1. Bob Beamon, 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches
2. Robert Emmiyan, 29 feet, 1 1/8 inches
3. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 10 inches
4. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 8 7/8 inches
5. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 8 7/8 inches
6. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 8 1/2 inches
7. Larry Myricks, 28 feet, 8 inches
8. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 7 3/8 inches
9. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 6 7/8 inches
10. Carl Lewis, 28 feet, 6 7/8 inches
Yeah, you could say that Lewis was pretty consistent. And he was never better than that day in Tokyo. The wind was blowing sporadically, so some jumps counted toward the world record while others were considered “wind-aided.” On Lewis’ third jump — which was considered wind-aided — he broke his own personal record by jumping 28 feet, 11 5/8 inches. It was his career long, and it would have been the third-longest jump of all-time had it counted. On his fourth jump, he landed beyond Beamon — he jumped 29 feet, 2 3/4 inches. Again, though, the jump was wind-aided, so it didn’t count as a record. But it certainly looked like a gold-winning performance.
Then Mike Powell had his historic moment. Earlier in the competition, Powell had an amazing jump that was discounted because of a foul by the tiniest margin. Lewis and Powell were pushing each other to the outer limits. And this time, with the wind down, Powell jumped clean, and he jumped 8.95 meters — that’s 29 feet, 4 3/8 inches. And that beat Beamon. Stunning. Mike Powell had the world record.
That left Lewis with two more jumps to both win the World Championship AND beat both Powell and Beamon. That’s when he unleashed an amazing but futile effort. With the intense pressure on, with the disappointment of seeing his rival do something that he had tried to do his whole life, with the ghost of Beamon gone, Carl Lewis TWICE jumped 29 feet. He jumped 29 feet 1 1/8 inches on his penultimate try. And he jumped almost exactly 29 feet on his last try. It was amazing — only two men before that day had jumped 29 feet, both at altitude. Carl Lewis did it THREE CONSECUTIVE times.
But the record was Powell’s. And the record is still Powell’s. Here’s the funny part: Carl Lewis says now that his intention in 1991 was to break the world record and retire from the long jump. He wanted to focus more on his sprinting. But once Powell broke the world record, Lewis felt like he could not retire, no chance, he had to try and get that record. So he kept chasing. He never did get the record. But he did win two more Olympic gold medals in the pursuit. So there was that.
Anyway, the record will probably be Powell’s for many years to come because, like I say, we just don’t jump like we used to. Nobody in years has jumped close enough that the NFL chain gang would even bother to come out and measure. The longest jump of 2010 wasn’t even 28 feet. And the longest jump this year, by Australia’s Mitchell Watt, is just 28 feet 3/8 inches. Carl Lewis had 24 non-wind aided jumps in competition longer than that in his career. TWENTY-FOUR. No, nobody — at least nobody on the visible horizon — figures to jump as far as Mike Powell.
But what if I tell you that the longest jump in the history of the world was NOT Mike Powell’s?
What if tell you about a mystery jump by Carl Lewis when he was at the height of his powers?
* * *
We seem to have lost our exuberance for mystery, haven’t we? We don’t even like it when camera angles can’t give us definitive evidence about whether an umpire’s call was correct or incorrect. And so we certainly would not tolerate, say, an open question such as whether or not Babe Ruth really pointed and called his home run in the World Series.*
*Could you even IMAGINE how much coverage there would be of that now? Question after question to Ruth, to his teammates, to the Cubs players, constant replays of the pointing, interviews of psychologists and scientists and fortune tellers, analysis by every single former player who ever hit a home run …
But there’s something wonderful about mystery, no? Did Josh Gibson really hit a home run out of old Yankee Stadium? How good a basketball player was Earl Manigault on the playgrounds of Harlem? How hard could Steve Dalkowski really throw? How good a quarterback could Greg Cook have been? How fast was Cool Papa Bell or the young Mickey Mantle? How high could Connie Hawkins jump when he was young? We don’t know. We can’t know.
By July 24, 1982, Carl Lewis had every intention of becoming the most famous, most admired and richest athlete on planet earth. That was the driving force of his life. And why not? Who else had his talent? Who else had his sense of style? Who else worked harder? “I guess, looking back, it was naivete,” he says now. He had grown up in New Jersey, the son of teachers and track coaches. His father, William, had taught him how to long jump, and by the time Carl was a junior in high school he was already one of the best in the world. In college, Lewis told the man who would coach him for the rest of his career, Tom Tellez, “I want to be a millionaire and I don’t ever want a real job.” This was in a very different time, when track was called an amateur sport, and Lewis’ words sounded to some like blasphemy.
“I just thought there was money out there — there HAD to be money out there,” Lewis says. He had no idea then about the twists and turns of his career. Yes, he would become the world’s best long jumper. He also would become the world’s fastest man. He would win glory, gold medals, and he would make quite a lot of money. But love would be harder to come by. Many people would find him to be arrogant and strange and calculating. His hunger for money and fame struck many people as crass. The more he achieved, the more he tried to stand out with outrageous clothes or hair or statements, the more people wanted to ignore him.
When he emerged as the greatest athlete in the world in 1983 — he won the long jump and 100 at the World Championships, anchored the relay team to gold and a world record and set the American 200-meter record — it was runner Mary Decker who was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the year. When Lewis won the four gold medals in 1984 — one of the greatest achievements in American sports history — Edwin Moses and Mary Lou Retton were named Sportsmen of the Year. None of the big American companies offered him endorsements after ’84. “I think the American public wants you to look macho,” Nike’s Don Coleman said at the time, echoing the shadowy rumors that floated around Lewis.
“I just didn’t realize so many people would be fighting against me,” Lewis says. He did find his way. He made quite a bit of money, especially overseas. He certainly earned fame, was featured on plenty of magazine covers, met Presidents. He was actually drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, though he didn’t play football (“They called me and tried to convince me to become the new Bob Hayes,”) and by the Chicago Bulls, though he didn’t really play basketball (“That was just a publicity stunt, I think”). He got his records. People still know his name. He is the spokesman this year for the Hershey’s Track and Field Games, a youth track program that has included hundreds of thousands of kids and will conclude on Saturday in Hershey, Pa. He is also running for state senate in New Jersey (“It’s time to end the gridlock,” he says). He says he has achieved many, maybe even most, of those enormous dreams he felt as a restless young man.
But what would have happened had the jump counted? It was that day: July 24, 1982. This was at the National Sports Festival in Indianapolis. Lewis was not yet famous, except among the most intense track fans. He was not yet decorated. He did not know yet what was to come. He was, as usual, competing in the long jump and other events, and because of that his schedule was crazy. He tried his first jump, fouled, and was taken away to run in the 4×100 relay. His team ran the fifth-fastest time ever. He then returned to try another jump, and he fouled again (this was early in his career, when he was athletically supercharged but before he had perfected his form). He was taken away again to accept the gold medal in the relay.
He returned and fouled a third time. And then he was ready. He would remember: He felt his body buzzing with energy. He could fly. The feeling was unlike anything he had felt before. Before the day began, a reporter had asked him if it was possible to jump 30 feet. He shrugged: “That’s unpredictable,” he said. “I haven’t jumped 29 feet yet.” But he knew that jump was inside him. He stepped up and began his approach. Athletes often talk about being in a zone — Lewis has never liked that word. It’s not a zone, he says, but a feeling of extreme focus, when you’re simply aware of everything. Lewis was aware. He felt that clean liftoff as he hit the board. He knew immediately. He was flying. When he hit the sand, he knew. He had broken the world record. He had jumped 30 feet. He looked down and saw the mark and his mind detonated. He was 21 years old, and he had just made the longest jump in the history of the world.
“What was going through my mind?” Lewis asks. And he answers: “‘Whoop! ‘That’s what was going through my mind. ‘Whoop! This is it! I did it!’”
He did it. Only, he didn’t, of course. When he looked back, he saw that the official had said he fouled. “There are no long fouls.” Lewis did not even know how to react. He KNEW he didn’t foul. He knew it with every strand of his DNA. “All I was thinking was: ‘Wait a minute what are you talking about?’” Lewis says now. He raced over to the official and pointed out the mark of his shoe. It was clearly not across the line. He had done it. He had jumped 30 feet. He had done the impossible. Only the official was shaking his head. He was not listening. There was no review. And by then, someone had already raked the sand, erasing the mark that labeled sports history.
“[The official] wouldn’t talk to me,” Lewis says. “He wouldn’t explain. This is what our sport is — it’s not for the athletes, it’s not for the fans. It’s for the officials. Think about that moment. Think about what that moment would done for the sport. And they wouldn’t even look to see the mistake.”
Lewis doesn’t even talk about what it would have done for him. On his next try, he jumped a clean 28 feet, 9 inches — at the time the second long jump ever. But he could not get that 30-foot jump out of his mind. For the rest of his life, he would be convinced that he had not fouled. “When you’re a long jumper you just KNOW when you foul,” he says. “There’s a feeling you have. I know I didn’t foul. I know that was a clean jump.”
“Then,” Lewis says, “I see the guy rake the pit. And it’s gone.”
He pauses.
“Gone,” he says again.
* * *
Carl Lewis says he has moved on from track and field. Yes, he still loves the sport, and he still admires the athletes who perform. He cheers for Usain Bolt, But he doesn’t care much for what they’ve done to the sport. “The whole thing is fading into oblivion,” he says. He talks about how the sport doesn’t market itself well at all, how the athletes don’t sell the sport, don’t reach out to fans, how they don’t even take victory laps after they win. He briefly talks about how he would promote the sport in today’s social media world. “Could you even imagine me on Twitter or Facebook?” he asks. But the subject doesn’t interest him much.
“The way I look at track now is the way I looked at high school after graduating,” he says. “I loved it. I had fun. But I’ve moved on. Would I want to go back now? No way.”
People sometimes ask him about his place in track history, and he feels like the question can’t get you very far. To Carl Lewis: Times and distances don’t cross generations. No, all you can do is perform in your time. He says: “Can anyone think that if Jesse Owens was running now, he WOULD NOT be the best? Of course he would. The best people beat anyone they’re supposed to in their time. I beat everyone in my time. I had my time.”
There’s no doubt. At Sports Illustrated, while we never named him Sportsman of the Year, we did name him Olympian of the Century. The International Olympic Committee called him the Sportsman of the Century. Unless another magical athlete comes along, it’s hard to imagine another man winning gold in the 100, 200 and long jump in the same Olympics. His four consecutive long jump golds will almost certainly never happen again.
Still when you say the name, “Carl Lewis,” in a society that forgets quickly, people may or may not remember the athletic brilliance. They may or may not remember the stride, the open hands, the grace as he made the turn or sprung from the blocks. Some better remember the way he savaged the national anthem, or the staggeringly limp first pitch he threw in Seattle or the aborted film career he wanted or the hair or the quotes or something like that. Fame can be like that — memory clings to what it will, and so Albert Einstein gets remembered for his hair, John Hancock for his signature, Willie Mays for a single catch in a World Series game.
But, what if Carl Lewis’ jump in Indianapolis had counted? Thirty feet. Some people who saw it swear it was 30 feet, anyway. “I know it was way past the world record,” Lewis says. “But 30 feet? People say that. They say it was 30. But I don’t know that. We’ll never know.”
No. We’ll never know. Still, it’s something to think about. Thirty feet. That’s like jumping from the 10-yard line into the end zone. It’s like dunking from the three-point line. It pushes the imagination, which, after all, is what the greatest sports achievements do. That 30 foot-jump might be the greatest thing that Carl Lewis ever did. It might be the greatest thing that any athlete ever did. And, like the outline that his feet and body left in the Indianapolis sand, it is gone.
