more than a decade ago , carl had stood on the fringe of that was to becoming the greatest athletics career in history . he had just broken two of the legendary jesse owens ' college albums , but never believed he wouldn become a corporate icon , the focus of thousand of millions of dollars in advertising . his country was still completely amateur . nineteen olympic and world championship gold medals and 21 world records now , lewis has became the richest guy in the realm of running and basketball - - a multi - platinum .
Carl Lewis won eighteen gold medals and set 21 world records.