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The last jump of Carl Lewis
From the first modern Olympic Games until the present day only one athlete of the long jump has succeeded in repeating his success in more than  one Olympic organizations. With his victory in the Games of Atlanta, which marked the end of his athletic career, Carl Lewis became a gold Olympic winner in 4 consecutive organizations (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996). He thus became the second track and field athlete and the third in the history of the Olympic Games to achieve that, after the victories of the discus thrower All Oerter (1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968) and of the sailor Paul Elvtrom (1948, 1952, 1956, 1960).
Carl Lewis first appeared in competition sport in 1981. Two years later he participated in the first world championship in athletics, winning in the long jump, the 100m and the 4x100m relay with the team of the United States. The following year he participated in the 1984 Olympics, setting a double goal: to repeat Jesse Owens' success by winning a gold medal in the events Owens had excelled in back in 1936 (100m, 200m, long jump, 4x100m), and by breaking the world record in the long jump, which was unbroken since 1968. Indeed, Lewis won all four events in which he competed. However, the jump that gave him the victory in the long jump was not even close to the legendary 8.90 by Bob Beamon. With a jump of 8.54, Lewis achieved exactly the same performance that had given the victory to the German Lutz Dombrowski four years ago, in the Moscow Games, and by a centimetre less than the 8.55 jump Lewis had achieved in the world championship of 1983.
The "haunted" long jump record was to be the only goal King Carl missed. Although he was more famous for his performances in the sprints, his event par excellence was the long jump, in which he had remained undefeatable for more than ten years, from 1981 until 1991. His first defeat in that event after 65 consecutive victories in finals of major organizations occurred in the world championship of 1991, where paradoxically he achieved the best jump in his career: 8.91, namely a centimetre above Âeamon's record. However, the winner and new holder of the best performance in the world was Mike Powell with a jump of 8.95.
In 1992, in the Barcelona Olympics, Lewis won back the first place in the long jump. Four years later, at the age of 35, he concluded his presence in the Olympic Games winning in the long jump final for the fourth time in a row. It was the first time that Lewis was not a favourite in the event. He was qualified third among the American long jumpers who would participate in the Olympics, he qualified for the final with difficulty and made his worst appearance in the Olympics. Nevertheless, the 8.50 jump of his last efforts, albeit the lowest performance in the Olympics since 1976, was enough for him to win his last gold Olympic medal out of a total of nine.
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