Carol LeGrant Lewis (born August 8, 1963) is an American former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who specialized in the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

. She is the 1983 World Championship bronze medalist, and a 4-time US Champion. Her best long jump of 7.04 meters in 1985 is the former American record. She is the sister of 9-time Olympic gold medalist

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 ...

, and former professional soccer player Cleveland Lewis. She is also the daughter of retired American hurdler Evelyn Lawler.Carol Lewis biography
Sports-reference. Retrieved on 2009-06-17.

Career

Born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% f ...

, Lewis qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the

1980 Summer Olympics boycott The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott was one part of a number of actions initiated by the United States to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and its allies later ...

. She received one of the 461

Congressional Gold Medal The Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress. It is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions. The congressional pract ...

s created especially for the spurned athletes. She first competed internationally at the

Liberty Bell Classic The Liberty Bell Classic was a track and field athletics event organized by the Athletics Congress as part of the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott and held at Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on July 16 and 17, 1980. ...

, an alternate event for boycotted athletes, where she won a silver medal with a jump of 6.60 meters. She won the

Dial Award The Dial Award was presented annually by the Dial Corporation to the male and female American high-school athlete/scholar of the year. Awardees See also *Wendy's High School Heisman The Heisman High School Scholarship in the past kn ...

that year in recognition of her achievements. While at

Willingboro High School Willingboro High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Willingboro Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of t ...

in New Jersey, setting the high school indoor long jump record at 21' 7.5" (6.59 meters) in 1981. She later went to the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

, following in the footsteps of her older brother. At Houston, she won 2

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

long jump championship titles in 1983: 21-11 3/4 and 1985: 22-1 She also joined her brother on the Santa Monica Track Club. Lewis won the

USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Oly ...

for the first time in 1982, the first of four National championships. Her 6.81m jump from that competition is the current United States,

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the ...

and Pan American Junior record. Further success came in 1983, with a win at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and bronze medal at the

1983 World Championships in Athletics The 1st 1983 World Championships in Athletics were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983. Summary The overall med ...

.Graffit-e
.

. Retrieved on 2009-06-17. After winning the Olympic Trials, she represented the

United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics The United States was the host nation of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. It was the nineteenth time that ''Team USA'' participated, having boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics. 522 competitors, 339 men and 183 women, took part i ...

and managed to finish in ninth place at the age of twenty. The following year she won the NCAA Outdoor Championships for a second time and took bronze at the World Cup in Athletics. In

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

in August that year, Lewis reached her peak, setting a personal best and breaking the American record in the long jump twice at the same track meeting. Her record of 7.04 m stood for two years until it was beaten by

Jackie Joyner-Kersee Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in tho ...

. Lewis competed at the

1987 IAAF World Indoor Championships The 1st IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in Indianapolis, United States from March 6 to March 8, 1987. The championship had previously been known as the World Indoor Games, which were held once before changing the name. Bein ...

, finishing in ninth position with a best jump of 6.23 m. She qualified for her third Olympics in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, failing to qualify for the final by just one centimeter. Following her retirement from track and field, she went on to work as a commentator for various events for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

. She commentated on the track events for the

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

.Hiestand, Michael (2006-02-20)
Gumbel's comments don't ring true for NBC pioneer Lewis
''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''. Retrieved on 2009-06-17. In 2000, Lewis began competing in two-woman bobsled and, although she failed to make the 2002 US Olympic team, she served as

Shauna Rohbock Shauna Linn Rohbock (born April 4, 1977) is a retired Olympic medal-winning bobsledder, former professional soccer player, and is a staff sergeant in the Utah Army National Guard.

's brakeman at the 2002 World Cup in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF Profile.Biography Lewis, Carol

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body fo ...

. Retrieved on 2009-06-17.

National titles

*4-time United States long jump champion – 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1986 *4-time United States Indoor long jump champion –1983, 1984, 1985 and 1991 *2-time NCAA long jump champion – 1983 and 1985

International competitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Carol 1963 births Living people American female long jumpers Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Track and field athletes from Birmingham, Alabama African-American female track and field athletes World Athletics Championships medalists Track and field broadcasters Houston Cougars women's track and field athletes Congressional Gold Medal recipients People from Willingboro Township, New Jersey Track and field athletes from New Jersey Sportspeople from Burlington County, New Jersey Willingboro High School alumni 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American women Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade gold medalists for the United States