Steven Earl Lewis (born May 16, 1969) is a former American track and field

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

, winner of three gold medals at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

and

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

. Born in

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, Steve Lewis took up track at with the Los Angeles Jets youth track club under the direction of Ronald Moore and later went to Banning High School. He transferred to American High School in

Fremont, California Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...

, following his sophomore year, where he graduated in 1987. While at American he competed in track and field and still holds the Mission Valley Athletic League record in the 400 meters. He won the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

in 1986 and 1987. He would go on to attend UCLA. As a freshman at UCLA, Lewis had a spectacular year in 1988, when the precocious 19-year-old not only completely rewrote the world junior all-time list in the 400 m, but also proved his mettle in senior competition by winning the Olympic gold medal. Lewis had not been a total unknown prior to 1988, having set a personal best of 45.76 at the 1987 USA national junior championships, but he caught many unawares when he won his quarter-final at the USA Olympic Trials with new world junior record of 44.61, and then slashed this time the following day, when he won his semi-final in 44.11. Despite this performance, Lewis could only finish third in the final in 44.37, having been well beaten by his older compatriots,

Butch Reynolds Harry Lee "Butch" Reynolds Jr. (born June 8, 1964) is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 meter dash. He held the world record for the event for 11 years 9 days with his personal best time of 43.29 seconds se ...

and his UCLA teammate,

Danny Everett Danny Everett (born November 1, 1966) is an American former track and field athlete who competed in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He won bronze medals in the 400 m at the 1988 Olympic Games and at the 1991 World Championsh ...

. In the Olympic Games at

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, Reynolds was the clear favorite to win the gold medal, and few people took Lewis' chances seriously, but in the Olympic final Lewis set a fast pace in the early stages while Reynolds held back. Although Reynolds closed near the finish, Lewis held on to win in 43.87, still the United States,

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and World junior record. Steve won a second gold medal three days later, as a member of the victorious USA 4 × 400 m

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switc ...

team which equalled the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

of 2:56.16 that had stood since the 1968 Olympics. By the end of 1988, Lewis had run what still rank as 7 of the top ten junior 400 metre races of all time. In 1990, he won

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Championships in the 400 m and went on to win the US Track and Field Championships in the same event. In 1992, Lewis, once again, competed at the Olympic Games in

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and won a silver medal in the 400 m and a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay, which broke the world record (2:55.74) that Lewis had previously helped tie in the 1988 Olympic Games. The rest of Lewis' career was affected by injury and an ongoing viral illness, and he never again competed at a major international championships. Lewis was inducted into the

UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

in 2004. In 2019, he was inducted into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Personal bests

As of August 2024, his time of 43.87 for 400 metres is still the track record for Seoul.

References

External links

*
Fremont's Lewis stuns fast 400 field
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Steve 1969 births Living people American male sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field UCLA Bruins men's track and field athletes Track and field athletes from Los Angeles Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics American High School (California) alumni Phineas Banning High School alumni NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners 20th-century American sportsmen