Carl Lewis: “I wanted to be like Prince”
Lewis did not hide his desire to be famous, and having made his name in the 1980s, he speaks openly about his quest for sporting glory and to be known in the same bracket as popstars of the time.
“When I first got into sports, especially at international level, I wanted to be rich, I wanted to be famous, I wanted to be known. All those things that 18, 19-year-olds think about,” he added.
“To think that my first Olympic team, I was only 18, we forget that I was so young. In my second Olympics, I made the team when I was 22.
“The big thing was I wanted to be an entertainer on the track and I met people in the entertainment business.
“[I went to the] Grammys and concerts. And I said ‘I want to be like Prince, I want to be like Michael Jackson’. So thinking like that, I brought that onto the track and I brought the entertainment side. I brought it.
“I brought the clothing and the fashion, all that stuff I thought would help me become the big brand that I wanted to be, and there was immediate pushback… the pushback was hard.”
The documentary also delves into Lewis’ gold-medal moments, as well as his biggest rivalries, which spanned four Olympic Games from 1984 to 1996.
The movie is available to watch on Olympics.com and the Olympics app in the United States and Japan only, from 10 September 2025.