📍Willingboro, New Jersey, USA
1963 – 1979“Carl Lewis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in July 1961, and in 1963, when he was two, his family left the violence of the civil rights struggle in Birmingham for Willingboro, New Jersey, a new, planned suburb of neat streets and parks east of Philadelphia. His parents, Bill and Evelyn, had both been track athletes at the Tuskegee Institute; his mother had represented the United States as a hurdler at the 1951 Pan American Games. Both became teachers and coaches in Willingboro. There were no track programmes for girls in the local schools, so his parents founded the Willingboro Track Club, which soon took boys too. When they had no babysitter, they would put Carl and his younger sister, Carol, in the long jump pit to play while they coached. Carl was small for his age and described himself as the runt of the family, behind his older brothers and his sister. But his parents encouraged him to set goals, and his father told stories of the great Jesse Owens; at about ten Carl met Owens at a youth meet, and was told to have fun. At thirteen he started competing in the long jump, practising constantly in his backyard, and then suddenly grew. At Willingboro High School he became one of the best long jumpers and sprinters in the country, graduating in 1979 as the top-ranked high school track athlete in America. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics he won four gold medals, equalling Owens, and he won nine Olympic golds in all. His sister Carol also became an Olympic long jumper.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today