Frederick Carlton Lewis’ first visit to Belgrade was to take place in the summer of 1991 as he was supposed to take part in a track-and-field meeting named „Clash of the Stars“ that had been ambitiously prepared by the Belgrade Marathon. Other stars of the world’s best club – the Santa Monica Track Club – were to arrive with Lewis, only to be followed by the rest of the world track-and-field elite; however, the clatter of arms in the former Yugoslavia and the beginning of the warfare put paid to the planned athletic event at the JNA Stadium.
The second attempt of the Belgrade Marathon to bring the greatest track-and-field star to Belgrade also failed. Due to the sanctions against Yugoslavia on which the Clinton administration rigorously insisted Lewis was prevented from attending the 7th Belgrade Soko Štark Marathon in the capacity of a promoter, but a video clip with his invitation and message „See you in Terazije“ summoned, in spite of the rain, a so far unsurpassed figure of over 40,000 participants to the three races of the marathon’s programme.
How many participants will be there this time when the promoter of the 19th Belgrade BANCA INTESA Marathon is actually in Terazije Street!
Carl Lewis, elected Top Male Athlete of the 20th Century by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on 21 November 1999 in Monte Carlo’s Grand Hotel, finally arrives in Belgrade, and the host of his stay will be „NIS Petrol“.
The Belgrade Marathon’s guest was elected the best athlete of all time in many polls and surveys, and a reason for that is easy to find. A number of reasons...

• Carl Lewis triumphed nine times at the Olympic Games thus equalling the record of Finland’s Paavo Nurmi.
• He won four gold medals at the Los Angles Games in 1984 (the 100m, the 200m, the long jump and the 4 x 100m relay) thus matching Jesse Owens’ record of the 1936 Berlin Games.
• He won the 1984 100m final by the widest margin in the Olympic history – 5/100 of a second or almost two and a half metres before the first runner-up (Lewis 9,92, Christie 9,97).
• Triumphing for the fourth consecutive time at the Olympic Games in the same event – the long jump – Carl Lewis, competing in his last Games in Atlanta in 1996, equalled the record of the USA’s Al Oerter (the discus throw).
• „King Carl“ won nine Olympic golds (the long jump: 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996; the 100m: 1984 and 1988; the 200m: 1984; the 4 x100m relay: 1984 and 1992) and a silver in the 200m in 1988 and set three world records (the 100m in 1988 and the 4 x 100m relay in 1984 and 1992).
• He won eight World Championship golds (the long jump: 1983 and 1987; the 100m: 1983, 1987 and 1991; the 4 x 100m relay: 1983, 1987 and 1991) and a silver (the long jump: 1991) which makes him a record holder.
• Lewis holds the record of the longest winning streak in a single event – from 28 February 1981 to 31 August 1991 – for full ten years he was unbeaten in the long jump, and he competed 63 times.
• Carl Lewis jumped 71 times over 8,53m (28 feet), he had a record number of 15 races under 10 seconds, held a record of nine 200m races under 20 seconds, and ran 11 times in the 4 x 100m relay teams that had a result under 38 seconds.
• He bettered twice world records in the 100m (9,93 and 9,86), five times in the 4 x 100m relay and twice in the 4 x 200m relay.
• A total number of Carl Lewis’ victories at the US Championships (US Olympic Trials), Commonwealth Games, Goodwill Games or IAAF Grand Prix, bearing all of the aforesaid in mind, is entirely irrelevant...

Lewis’ medal collection would have been even greater had the USA not boycotted the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 (the young Lewis qualified for the long jump and the 4 x 100m relay) and had the World Championships started before 1983 as he had been the world’s number one in the 100m dash and the long jump as early as 1981.
However, the peak of Lewis’ career occurred almost at its beginning, at his Olympic debut. At the Coliseum Stadium in Los Angeles in 1984 the triple world champion of the 1983 Helsinki World Championships became a four-time Olympic champion by competing 13 times in eight days.
Thus Lewis repeated Jesse Owens’ 1936 feat from the Berlin Games, triumphing in the same events (the 100 and 200m dashes, the long jump and the 4 x 100m relay) as his great predecessor and fellow countryman (both Alabama-born) had done. Lewis, like Owens, 48 years earlier, set the relay world record and proved to have matched his, at the time, only true “rival”. Opponents of flesh and blood could not hold a candle to him.
Yet, should you have a chance to meet Lewis in Belgrade and ask him which medal he holds most dear, he would probably single out the last Olympic one, won in Atlanta in 1996, the one which rounded off his rich career.