Lewis Enters Trials With Dash Of Old Form

Carl Lewis, an eight-time gold medalist and perhaps the greatest sprinter of all time, couldn’t qualify for the Olympics at 100 or 200 meters four years ago.

A virus had sapped his strength, and he failed to finish among the leaders in those events at the U.S. Olympic trials. Despite winning the previous two gold medals in the 100, he was an onlooker at Barcelona.

He won the long jump and a relay gold at the 1992 Olympics, but his decade of sprint domination was over. Many thought he was too old to compete, a theory that gained wider acceptance with his poor performances last year and this winter.

Now, a few weeks short of his 35th birthday, Lewis is back for another shot. He’s once again a top contender for spots in the 100, 200 and long jump when the 10-day Olympic trials open Friday.

A wind-aided time of 9.94 seconds in the 100 at the Atlanta Grand Prix in May, on the same track that will host the Olympic trials and the Summer Games, put Lewis back among the favorites to make the U.S. team.

“They haven’t put me on the team. They haven’t made me a medal favorite. They haven’t done anything,” Lewis said of his times. “But what they’ve done is restore my greatest asset, and that is my confidence. My confidence is back supreme again. I feel I can beat anybody in any race.”

The top three finishers in each race will make the U.S. squad. That means some of the top runners in the world will not make it to the Olympics.

To illustrate how hard it will be to make the U.S. team, consider this: The qualifying time for the Olympics in the men’s 100 is 10.34, while the qualifying time for the U.S. trials is 10.20.

In the 100, the field facing Lewis will include world record holder Leroy Burrell, 1992 Olympic bronze medalist Dennis Mitchell, 1993 world championship silver medalist Andre Cason, and Mike Marsh, the 1992 Olympic 200 champion.

At least two of those five speedsters won’t make the U.S. team.

Burrell, who set the world mark of 9.85 in 1994, is in greatest danger of getting squeezed out. Coming off two years of injuries, he just qualified for the Olympic trials last week at the Jenner Classic.

“It’s been such a rough road, such a rocky road,” Burrell said.

Michael Johnson is a strong favorite in the 200 and 400, as he will be at the Olympics. He’s won 20 straight races in the 200 and is undefeated in 52 consecutive races in the 400. He’ll continue his quest to break the world record in both.

Johnson’s main competition in the 200 will be Marsh, who came within a hundredth of a second of the world record of 19.72 in his semifinal heat at Barcelona.

In the 400, Johnson’s top opponent is world record holder Butch Reynolds, who spent the last six years trying to clear his name of what he claims was an erroneous drug suspension. He needed a Supreme Court order to compete in the 1992 trials, but failed to finish in the top three.

Gwen Torrence also will be a favorite in two events at the trials, the women’s 100 and 200, and she’ll run in her hometown. She said competing in Atlanta will be a burden as well as a joy.

“There is a lot of pressure,” said Torrence, the 1992 Olympic winner in the 200 and the 1995 world champion in the 100. “Everybody in my home state wants me to get a gold medal, and I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”

The trials should also be a showcase for the next generation of U.S. track stars, such as flashy pole vaulter Lawrence Johnson - who set the American record last month - and women’s sprinters D’Andre Hill and Zundra Feagin, teammates at LSU .

The trials also will provide yet another chance for Mary Slaney, 37, to continue her long quest for an Olympic medal.

Though she holds U.S. records at 800, 1,500, 3,000 and the mile, Slaney has never placed higher than eighth in the Olympics.

Slaney, who has had at least 18 operations on her legs, has qualified to run in the 1,500 and the 5,000 at the trials.