In track and field he’s remembered as The Greatest. Away from the spotlight, his is a life often misunderstood.
Carl Lewis became athletics’ first commercially global star. But he did it his own way – cocky, confident and unwilling to conform to what the US expected from its athletes.
In a record-breaking career spanning 18 years, Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals across four Games and was voted “Sportsman of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee. Yet Lewis refused to be pigeonholed and, in doing so, he both revolutionised his sport and inspired cultural change.
Almost 30 years on, Lewis’s legacy has failed to match his incredible success on the track. I’m Carl Lewis! delves into the consequences of his uncompromising drive, featuring unseen archive and Lewis talking openly about his extraordinary life, for the first time in a feature documentary.
Directed by: Julie Anderson, Chris Hay
RT: 98 min