With nine golds, Lewis is tied with Paavo Nurmi, the Finnish distance runner of the 1920s, and Mark Spitz, the American swimmer of the 1970s. The 400 relay competition is scheduled to start Friday, with first-round heats in the morning and the semifinals in the evening. The final is scheduled for Saturday. Lewis, who was to meet with U.S. men's track coach Erv Hunt on Tuesday, has anchored six 400 relay teams to world records. He was on Olympic gold-medal teams in 1984 and again in 1992.
Hunt is faced with an interesting decision.
Lewis, after all, is not the sprinter he once was, as was evident in the U.S. trials in June. Hunt said he is happy with the current 400 relay team, but he refused to rule out Lewis. If one of the four gets hurt, Hunt said, Lewis could be added to the squad even though he is not even an alternate and refused to attend a relay training camp in North Carolina in mid-July. Mitchell, however, did not warm to the idea of Lewis joining the team. The USA 400-meter relay team is going to get the job done.