After competing in the 1984 Olympics at age 20, Lewis made his World Cup debut a month later in March 1984 with an 8th-place finish at Whistler, BC. The following season, Lewis had two World Cup top ten finishes and was the bronze medalist in the downhill at the 1985 World Championships at He was unknown at that time, and having a bib number behind the best 15 racers he did gatecrash a party of three Swiss racers on the podium (and pushing away Franz Heinzer). His only World Cup podium came six months later, a second-place finish in Las Leñas, Argentina, in August 1985.