TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | j a n / f e b 2 0 1 7 9 We're an Olympic-based program, so if you're not thinking of that—whether you make it or not—you don't fit here. Q | You've won 10 Olympic medals and 10 World Championships medals. You broke and set world records. You've been named 'World Athlete of the Century,' 'Sportsman of the Century' and 'Olympian of the Century.' What would you say is your proudest achievement? A | My greatest accomplishment, I'd say, is the lon- gevity in my sport. Jesse Owens, who is a huge idol of mine, didn't have a chance to go back to the Olympics or he would have been 'Athlete of the Century.' I think it's the fact that I went 10 years in a row without losing a long jump against anyone. I won four Olympics in a row, and was No. 1 in the world over 10 years in the sprints. These are things that may not happen again. It's the longevity, the fact that I improved as I got older because I had to meet the challenges. Q | You became a vegan in 1990. Did it help your athletic performance? A | I wanted to keep my weight down, but I did it by not eating. I would skip breakfast every day, skip lunch most days, and eat dinner. It was just unhealthy. I started doing some research on what I had to do to maintain a better diet. It came out to a vegetarian and vegan diet. The biggest challenge wasn't shifting to that diet because that was easy for me. It was changing my mindset to eat more. I had gotten used to turning away breakfast because I'd gain weight, so early on, I was calorie-deficient and listless. I was eating 2,500 calories a day, that's it. We were training, so we were burning thousands of calories. It took a while for me to get used to eating three vegan meals a day. After that, I really loved it because I could eat these huge meals and snacks. My chef became so creative in the way she cooked, cooking vegetarian lasagna with spinach and soy cheese. But I'll eat meat sometimes. I don't trip out on it. Q | You say that you don't like running, but as an Olympic sprinter and long jumper, that seems kind of counterintuitive. A | No, I don't like jogging at all! Actually, I've never liked distance running, never liked jogging. Coach Tom Tellez at UH used to always laugh and say, 'It's good, because you're the worst-looking jogger. You look terrible jogging!' My mother was a visionary. When she moved to New Jersey, she wanted track and field. In the '60s, they mainly had softball, field hockey and basketball, but they didn't have track and she was like, 'Girls should have a track program, too. Why do the boys have track and girls don't?' That's how the Willingboro Track Club started, because she was like, 'If they won't put it in the schools, then I'm going to start my own club.' Our summers revolved around the track program. I lived 40 minutes from the Jersey shore, but I never went one time in my life. I did not know it existed because we were at track meets or this or that. They were down eating saltwater taffy and I was at track meets eating cold chicken. Q | You ended up attending the University of Houston. What made you choose to become a Cougar? A | There were three powerhouses: Villanova, Tennessee and Houston. I originally wanted to go to UCLA, but that didn't work out. It came down to these three. When I came to Houston on a visit, it was the worst. I got here, a guy took me around and it was boring. He just talked my ear off. He wanted to talk about the past, but I wanted to talk about the future. The head coach asked me to meet him at the track office and he would take me to the airport. I get there and the track was a dirty track. It was just ridiculous. I'm saying, 'This is such a waste of my time.' When I went into that meeting with the head coach, he pulled out some videos and we watched them in his office in a rickety old building. He's talking about the long jump, he's talking about the jumpers, and I'm like, 'Wow, this guy understands the long jump!' He said, 'You're tall. You're fast. I think you can break the world record and be an Olympic champion.' That was it. That's what I wanted to hear, but I didn't know it until I heard it. Q | You're back at the University of Houston as a coach. How do you incorporate that 'be the best you can be' attitude into your track and field program? A | Renu Khator [UH president and chancellor of the UH system] and I have become very good friends. We've won conference every year I've been here. Every time I see her, she says, 'How many Olympians?' And that's the visionary in her. She's seeing the program beyond college. Being someone who wasn't born in America, she sees the world in a different way. I only want to recruit a kid who wants to become an Olympian. That's it. That doesn't mean you're going to be, but I want someone with that vision. Q | You ran for New Jersey State Senate in 2011, but were disqualified because officials said you did not meet the four-year state residency requirement. What did you learn from that experience? A | I ran because I wanted to make a difference. In South Jersey, there were a few things. Number one, I was at a restaurant and denied service. It was bizarre to me, because I had been around the world, but five miles from my home, some woman said she's not serv- ing me. I thought, 'Well, that story needs to be told.' Someone also needed to fight for pension issues and plans. South Jersey has one of the most segre- gated public school systems in America. I grew up there, had a wonderful time and loved it. Then I moved to Houston and to California. I traveled to over 200 countries and started seeing the world. I started saying, 'Wow, this place is so backwards.' So I wanted to make a difference. I wasn't afraid to stand up to the government at the time. Everyone was like, 'Oh my God!' But I just said, 'Dude, are you kidding me?' I would have been an outspoken senator. I ran and they fought me at the state level, from Gov. Christie all the way down, and kept knocking me off the ballot. Finally, I realized that the reason I was running was because the people who were there weren't stepping up to have the community they wanted. (continued) Carl Lewis' Olympic Medals MEDAL YEAR/LOCATION EVENT Gold 1996 Atlanta Long jump Gold 1992 Barcelona Long jump Gold 1992 Barcelona 4 x 100 m relay Silver 1988 Seoul 200 m Gold 1988 Seoul Long jump Gold 1988 Seoul 100 m Gold 1984 Los Angeles Long jump Gold 1984 Los Angeles 4 x 100 m relay Gold 1984 Los Angeles 200 m Gold 1984 Los Angeles 100 m

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