Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | American | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Los Angeles | May 16, 1969|||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Track | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | 400 metres | |||||||||||||||||||||||
College team | UCLA Bruins | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Santa Monica Track Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Steven Earl Lewis (born May 16, 1969) is a former American track and field athlete, winner of three gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics and 1992 Summer Olympics.
Born in Los Angeles, Steve Lewis took up track at with the Los Angeles Jets youth track club under the direction of Ronald Moore and later went to Banning High School. He transferred to American High School in Fremont, California, following his sophomore year, where he graduated in 1987. While at American he competed in track and field and still holds the Mission Valley Athletic League record in the 400 meters. He won the CIF California State Meet in 1986 and 1987. [1] He would go on to attend UCLA. As a freshman at UCLA, Lewis had a spectacular year in 1988, when the precocious 19-year-old not only completely rewrote the world junior all-time list in the 400 m, but also proved his mettle in senior competition by winning the Olympic gold medal.
Lewis had not been a total unknown prior to 1988, having set a personal best of 45.76 at the 1987 USA national junior championships, but he caught many unawares when he won his quarter-final at the USA Olympic Trials with new world junior record of 44.61, and then slashed this time the following day, when he won his semi-final in 44.11. Despite this performance, Lewis could only finish third in the final in 44.37, having been well beaten by his older compatriots, Butch Reynolds and his UCLA teammate, Danny Everett.
In the Olympic Games at Seoul, Reynolds was the clear favourite to win the gold medal, and few people took Lewis' chances seriously, but in the Olympic final Lewis set a fast pace in the early stages while Reynolds held back. Although Reynolds closed near the finish, Lewis held on to win in 43.87, still the United States, North American and World junior record. Steve won a second gold medal three days later, as a member of the victorious USA 4 × 400 m relay team which equalled the world record of 2:56.16 that had stood since the 1968 Olympics.
By the end of 1988, Lewis had run what still rank as 7 of the top ten junior 400 metre races of all time. [2]
In 1990, he won NCAA Championships in the 400 m and went on to win the US Track and Field Championships in the same event.
In 1992, Lewis, once again, competed at the Olympic Games in Barcelona and won a silver medal in the 400 m and a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay, which broke the world record (2:55.74) that Lewis had previously helped tie in the 1988 Olympic Games.
The rest of Lewis' career was affected by injury and an ongoing viral illness, and he never again competed at a major international championships.
Lewis was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2019, he was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. [3]
Matthew Nicholas Biondi is an American former competitive swimmer and water polo player. As a swimmer, he is an eleven-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in five events. Biondi competed in the Summer Olympic Games in 1984, 1988 and 1992, winning a total of eleven medals. During his career, he set three individual world records in the 50-meter freestyle and four in the 100-meter freestyle.
Michael Duane Johnson is an American retired sprinter who won four Olympic gold medals and eight World Championships gold medals in the span of his career. He held the world and Olympic records in the 200 m and 400 m, as well as the world record in the indoor 400 m. He also once held the world's best time in the 300 m. Johnson is generally considered one of the greatest and most consistent sprinters in the history of track and field.
Michael Lawrence Marsh is a retired American sprinter, the 1992 Olympic champion in the 200 m.
Tyree Washington is a retired American sprinter.
Roger Anthony BlackMBE is an English former athlete who competed internationally for Great Britain and England. During his athletics career, he won individual silver medals in the 400 metres sprint at both the Olympic Games and World Championships, two individual gold medals at the European Championships, and 4 × 400 metres relay gold medals at both the World and European Championships.
Jeremy Matthew Wariner is a retired American track athlete specializing in the 400 meters. He has won four Olympic medals and six World Championships medals. He is the fourth fastest competitor in the history of the 400 m event with a personal best of 43.45 seconds, behind Wayde van Niekerk, Michael Johnson and Butch Reynolds and the fifth fastest all-time mark when he set it in 2007.
Kevin C. Young is a former American athlete. He was the winner of the 400 metres hurdles at the 1992 Summer Olympics. In the final of this event he set a world record and Olympic record of 46.78 seconds, the first time 47 seconds was broken, and a world record that stood for nearly 29 years until it was broken by Karsten Warholm on July 1, 2021.
Derrick Ralph Adkins is a former American track and field athlete who specialized in the 400-meter hurdles. He was an Olympic gold medalist in that event at the 1996 Summer Olympics and World Champion at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics. He was the fastest man in the world in the 1994 and 1996 seasons, and holds a personal record of 47.54 seconds. Adkins was a two-time national champion at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Angelo F. Taylor is an American track and field athlete, winner of 400-meter hurdles at the 2000 and 2008 Summer Olympics. His personal record for the hurdles event is 47.25 seconds. His time puts him in a tie with Félix Sánchez for the #14 performer of all time. Sánchez also won two Olympic gold medals, in 2004 between Taylor's two golds and 2012, immediately following. Taylor also has a 400-meter dash best of 44.05 seconds, ranking him as the #25 performer of all time, superior to any other athlete who has made a serious effort in the 400 metres hurdles. He won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
George Larry James was an American track athlete. At the 1968 Olympics he won a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay and a silver in the individual 400 m.
Kerron Stephon Clement is a Trinidadian-born American track and field athlete who competes in the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter sprint. He held the indoor world record in the 400-meter sprint, having broken Michael Johnson's mark in 2005.
Danny Everett is an American former track and field athlete who competed in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He won bronze medals in the 400m at the 1988 Olympic Games and at the 1991 World Championships, and won gold medals in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1987 World Championships and the 1988 Olympic Games. His 400m best of 43.81 seconds when winning the 1992 US Olympic trials, moved him to second on the world all-time list and still ranks him 13th on the world all-time list.
Harry Lee Reynolds Jr., commonly known as Butch Reynolds, is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 meter dash. He held the world record for the event for 11 years 9 days with his personal best time of 43.29 seconds set in 1988. That year, he was the silver medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and a relay gold medalist. He was falsely accused and banned for drug use for two years by the IAAF; until The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Reynolds due to an apparent drug testing procedural flaw. Reynolds was awarded $27.3 million dollars due to the false accusation damages, but he never received the money.
Antonio McKay Sr. is a former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400 meters.
These are the official results of the Men's 4 × 400 metre relay event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. There were a total number of 21 nations competing.
Michael Mathieu is a retired Bahamian sprinter hailing from Freeport, Grand Bahama who specialized in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He was part of the Bahamian silver medal-winning team in the men's 4×400 metres relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, running second leg and recording a 44.0 split, and the gold medal-winning team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was also a part of second place relay team at the 2007 World Championships. He won the bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
John Walton Smith is a former American athlete, who competed in the sprints events during his career. He is best known for winning the 400 m event at the 1971 Pan American Games. He remains the world record holder for the 440 yard dash at 44.5 seconds. He set the record while winning the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on June 26, 1971 while running for the Southern California Striders. The record has stood since then due to metrification in the sport. Contemporary athletes rarely run or are timed officially for the extra 2.34 meters to equal 440 yards.
Deon Minor is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400 meter dash. He won two consecutive gold medals in the relay at the IAAF World Indoor Championships from 1997 to 1999, setting a world record mark of 3:02.83 minutes in the latter competition.
Andrea Arlene Anderson is an American track and field athlete best remembered for winning a gold medal on the 4 × 400 meters relay team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She ran in the preliminaries and semi-finals. Anderson subsequently had to return her medal along with the rest of the team after Marion Jones was disqualified following her admission to using performance-enhancing drugs. On July 16, 2010, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of the other American teammates and returned the medals.