Editing Carl Lewis (section)

===Fame as a competitive athlete===
[[File:Carl Lewis as a University of Houston athlete.jpg|thumb|Lewis performing the [[long jump]] as a [[Houston Cougars|University of Houston]] college athlete]]
Frederick Carlton Lewis was born in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], on July 1, 1961, the son of William Lewis (1927–1987)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/07/obituaries/william-lewis-track-coach-and-father-of-olympic-star.html |title=William Lewis, Track Coach and Father of Olympic Star |work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press |date=May 7, 1987 |access-date=July 22, 2021 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> and [[Evelyn Lawler|Evelyn née Lawler Lewis]]. His mother was a hurdler on the 1951 Pan-Am team.<ref name=TFNInterview>{{cite news |last1=Gleason |first1=David |title=T&FN Interview: Carl Lewis |url=http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/tfn_pdfs/Interviews/Carl%20Lewis.pdf |access-date=January 15, 2015 |work=Track & Field News |date=December 1980}}{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> His elder brother [[Cleveland Lewis]] played professional soccer for the [[Memphis Rogues]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Amdur |first=Neil |title=Jersey Siblings Rival the Best in Track and Field |date=February 12, 1981 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/12/sports/jersey-siblings-rival-the-best-in-track-and-field.html |access-date=July 8, 2019}}</ref> His parents ran a local athletics club that provided a crucial influence on both him and his sister, [[Carol Lewis|Carol]].<ref name=dadobit/> She became an elite long jumper, finishing ninth at the 1984 Olympics and taking bronze at the 1983 World Championships.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-championships/1st-iaaf-world-championships-in-athletics-3/results/women/long-jump/final/series |title=Long Jump Result – 1st IAAF World Championships in Athletics|website=iaaf.org |access-date=August 9, 2018 |archive-date=August 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809121749/https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/iaaf-world-championships/1st-iaaf-world-championships-in-athletics-3/results/women/long-jump/final/series |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Lewis was initially coached by his father, who also coached other local athletes to elite status.<ref name=dadobit>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/07/obituaries/william-lewis-track-coach-and-father-of-olympic-star.html?pagewanted=print |title=William Lewis, Track Coach and Father of Olympic Star |date=May 7, 1987 |agency=Associated Press |access-date=January 30, 2009 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> At age 13, Lewis began competing in the long jump, and he emerged as a promising athlete while coached by Andy Dudek and Paul Minore at [[Willingboro High School]] in his hometown of [[Willingboro Township, New Jersey]].<ref name=TFNInterview/><ref>{{cite news |last=Strauss |first=Robert |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/02/nyregion/worth-noting-carl-lewis-takes-honors-but-not-at-his-home-track.html |title=WORTH NOTING; Carl Lewis Takes Honors, But Not at His Home Track |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 2, 2001 |access-date=March 31, 2008}}</ref> He achieved the ranking of fourth on the all-time World Junior list of long jumpers.<ref name=TFNInterview/>

Many colleges tried to recruit Lewis, and he chose to enroll at the [[University of Houston]] where Tom Tellez was coach. Tellez would thereafter remain Lewis's coach for his entire career. Days after graduating from high school in 1979, Lewis broke the high school long jump record with a leap of {{T&Fcalc|8.13}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/category-stats/2098-t-fn-boys-long-jump-all-americas |title=T&FN Boys' Long Jump All-Americas |work=trackandfieldnews.com |access-date=June 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610180436/http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/category-stats/2098-t-fn-boys-long-jump-all-americas |archive-date=June 10, 2015 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref> By the end of 1979, Lewis was ranked fifth in the world for the long jump, according to ''Track and Field News''.<ref name=ljworldrank>{{cite web |title=Men's World Rankings by Athlete: Long Jump |url=http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/Rankings/16-mljbyathlete.pdf |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6XO7fgZrR?url=http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/Rankings/16-mljbyathlete.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 29, 2015 |website=trackandfieldnews.com |access-date=January 15, 2015}}</ref>

An old knee injury had flared up again at the end of the high school year, and this might have had consequences on his fitness. Lewis worked with Tellez and adapted his technique so that he was able to jump without pain, and he went on to win the 1980 [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA) title with a wind-assisted jump of {{T&Fcalc|8.35}}.<ref name=TFNInterview/>

Though his focus was on the long jump, he was now starting to emerge as a talent in the sprints. Comparisons were beginning to be made with [[Jesse Owens]], who dominated sprint and long jump events in the 1930s. Lewis qualified for the American team for the [[1980 Summer Olympics|1980 Olympics]] in the long jump and as a member of the 4 × 100&nbsp;m relay team.<ref name=TFNInterview/> The [[1980 Summer Olympics boycott|Olympic boycott]] precluded Lewis from competing in Moscow, Russia; he instead participated in the [[Liberty Bell Classic]] in July 1980, which was an alternate meet for boycotting nations. He jumped {{T&Fcalc|7.77}} for a bronze medal, and the American 4 × 100&nbsp;m relay team won gold with a time of 38.61&nbsp;s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/ic/obg.htm |title=Olympic Boycott Games |work=gbrathletics.com}}</ref> He received one of 461 [[List of Congressional Gold Medal recipients|Congressional Gold Medal]]s created specifically for the athletes on the 1980 U.S. Summer Olympics team.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caroccioli |first1=Tom |last2=Caroccioli |first2=Jerry |title=Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games |year=2008 |publisher=New Chapter Press |location=Highland Park, Illinois |isbn=978-0-942257-40-3 |pages=243–253}}</ref> At year's end, he was ranked sixth in the world in the long jump and seventh in the 100&nbsp;m.<ref name=ljworldrank/><ref name=100worldrank>{{cite web |title=World Rankings by Athlete: 100m |url=http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/Rankings/01-m100byathlete.pdf |website=trackandfieldnews.com |access-date=January 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6XO7fh65y?url=http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/images/stories/Rankings/01-m100byathlete.pdf |archive-date=March 29, 2015 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref>