Steve Lewis

This article is about the sprinter Steve Lewis. For the jazz musician, see Steve Lewis (musician) ; on the pole vaulter see Steven Lewis .

Steve Lewis
Full name	Steven Earl Lewis
nation	United States
birthday	May 16, 1969
place of birth	los Angeles
size	188 cm
Weight	84 kg
Career
discipline	sprint
Best performance	43.87 s ( 400 m )
society	UCLA Bruins
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic games 3 × 1 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold Seoul 1988 400 m gold Seoul 1988 4 × 400 m gold Barcelona 1992 4 × 400 m silver Barcelona 1992 400 m

Steve Lewis (actually Steven Earl Lewis ; born May 16, 1969 in Los Angeles , California ) is a former American athlete and Olympic champion .

Career

Lewis wasn't a complete stranger before 1988. As early as 1987, at the national junior championships in the 400-meter run , he achieved a personal best of 45.76 s. In the US eliminations, he won the quarterfinals in 44.61 s and set a junior world record. In the semifinals he improved this result again to 44.11 seconds. In the final, he could not match his previous time, but qualified third behind Harry Reynolds and Danny Everett .

At the 1988 Seoul Olympics , Reynolds was the clear favorite for a 400-meter gold medal, and few thought Lewis had a real chance. But in the finals, Lewis and Everett hit a fast pace very early on. Reynolds initially fell back, but was able to pass Everett on the home stretch and catch up with Lewis, but not overtake him. Lewis won with a time of 43.87 s, which was another junior world record. Silver went to Reynolds and bronze to Everett. A few days later he won his second gold medal with the team in the 4 x 400 meter relay together with Everett, Kevin Robinzine and Reynolds with the world record time of 2: 56.16 minutes, ahead of the teams from Jamaica (silver) and Germany (bronze).

In 1990 Lewis won the NCAA 400-meter championships and the US championships. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona he competed again and won the silver medal, behind his compatriot Quincy Watts and ahead of the Kenyan Samson Kitur . In the 4 x 400 meter relay, he again won the team gold medal, this time with Andrew Valmon , Watts and Michael Johnson , ahead of the teams from Cuba and the United Kingdom .

The rest of his career was marred by injuries and an ongoing viral infection. He never took part in international championships again.

Web links

• Steve Lewis in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Steve Lewis in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )