Lewis Jumps Into Olympic Immortality

Track and field is a Milky Way of planet-events - too many for modern telepackaging - with space for but one sun.

As it was in the beginning.

The Greeks had the original Olympic format down cold: one race - a sprint - and one olive wreath for the winner. But then the chariot racers lobbied for demonstration sport status and before you could say “gigantism,” there were the heirs of Esther Williams vying for gold in synchronized swimming.

Stripped of foo-foo aquatics and junior-high gymnasts, the Games are about legacies that last - and they last on the track.

Nurmi. Oerter. Zatopek.

Lewis.

Track is the test of time in every sense. Fast time. Long time. One at a time.

Carl Lewis, his time now short, is willing to compromise on the last point. Michael Johnson unwittingly did.

In lobbying the International Olympic Committee to change the 1996 track schedule to abet his plot to win both the 200 and 400 meters, Johnson may not have noticed the price tag: our undivided attention. So on the same night Johnson picked to complete the first half of his uncommon double, Lewis - sensing his competitive mortality - grabbed his chance to join the immortals.

The drama played out Monday night before 82,773 theater-goers, though all of them understood the high drama was confined to Lewis’ quest for a fourth consecutive gold medal in the long jump.

Drama? He had needed a big mark on his final jump in Sunday’s qualifying to stave off elimination. He was an old man of 35 in an event made for younger legs. He seemed almost like an add-on to the U.S. team after running on empty in the 100 and 200 at the trials.

But there was history at stake, and history is Lewis’ best subject.

Energized by the strobes of a thousand Kodaks, he stunned the field and the fans with a third-round jump of 27 feet, 10-3/4 inches - a blast from a past cluttered with big-time jumps in big-time circumstances.

“He’s Carl Lewis,” marveled bronze medalist Joe Greene, “and he’s done this forever.”

Johnson? Food poisoning beat him in the Barcelona 200 four years ago. Only ptomaine or a twister had a chance against him in the 400 this night. His winning time - 43.49 seconds - was an Olympic record; his winning margin of .92 the largest in Olympic 400 history.

“For the past four years, every time I’ve done something I’ve been asked if it helped make up for ‘92,” Johnson said. “And I’ve always said it had nothing to do with ‘92. “Well, winning that gold medal did make up for ‘92.”

They are not friendly, Johnson and Lewis. They are not anything at all. When Lewis had to sit out last year’s World Championships with an injury, he mocked the meet’s marketability by saying, “There’s no buzz. The one American they are trying to build up is Michael Johnson, and he’s not doing anything for them. I guarantee if I were in the 400 meters, it would have sold out.”

Lewis’ argument was that he had charisma and Johnson didn’t. And he was right, in this regard:

Carl Lewis has always been easy to dislike. Michael Johnson has just been hard to like.

So Johnson fired back. And, sadly, continued to even after Lewis won his ninth gold medal.

“If Carl’s still trying to be the premier athlete in track and field, I think he should step down from that,” Johnson said Monday night. “That’s always going to be a matter of opinion.”

More than 80,000 witness respectfully disagreed. Half of them waited around until nearly this morning to see Lewis get his gold. One of them was Al Oerter, the discus legend. He and Danish sailor Paul Elvstrom are the only other men to win gold in the same event four Olympics running.

“I was never expected to win any of my four,” Oerter said, “but I was flat out ready to win every time. No one was more ready. And I think you can say the same thing about Carl.”

The irony of the evening was that Lewis passed two of his three final attempts. For this he was booed in 1984, too busy lusting after the four golds Owens won to try for a world record. This time he saw signs that read, “We love you Carl Lewis - Thanks for the memories.”

“Maybe people booed that day, but they cheered the next day when I was winning the 200,” Lewis said. “Anyway, that was about 16 hair styles ago.”

America forgives. America forgets. America remembers.

“I don’t know what anyone has to do to pass a torch,” Lewis said, his voice slipping into his statesman register that still cracks from time to time. “There is no manual on that.

“Track and field has some 30-some-odd events. If we had 30-some-odd Michael Johnsons and Carl Lewises, there would be no other sport in the world - track and field would be number one. What Michael needs to realize is there is no such thing as passing the torch. Michael won the gold medal tonight. Allen Johnson won the gold medal tonight. I won a gold medal tonight. We should be celebrating the multitudes of talent in our sport instead of jockeying for one or two positions and say ‘Look at me, look at me.”’

Easier said, of course, when everybody’s already looking.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LOCAL WATCH How athletes from Washington and Idaho fared on Monday: Track and field: Adam Setliff, Houston (University of Washington), qualified for finals in the men’s discus (204 feet, 7 inches). Tony Li, China (ex-WSU), 9th in his 110-meter men’s high hurdle semifinal heat (13.60) and fails to advance to the finals. Basketball: Camille Thompson, Canada (ex-WSU) suffers through women’s team’s fifth straight loss, 95-85 to Japan.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review