more than a millennium ago , carl also stood on the doorway of why was to form the greatest athletics career in history . he had just broken two of the legendary sam travis ' world records , but never believes he would becoming a global icon , the focus of hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising . his sport was kept nominally amateur . eighteen olympic and world championship gold medals and 21 personal records after , lewis has become the richest person in the history of tracked and field - - a single - millionaire .
Carl Lewis won eighteen gold medals and set 21 world records.