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Carl Lewis’ arm strength has improved drastically over the last 10 years. The nine-time Olympic champion went just a bit high on his ceremonial first pitch at a Houston Astros game Tuesday night.
After, Lewis, who went to the University of Houston, was asked what time he would run the 100 meters in today.
“The time wouldn’t be the issue,” Lewis, 52, said. “The issue would be how many body parts would cross the line with me.”
Houston was also the site of Lewis’ retirement in 1997, in quite unusual fashion. He ran an unopposed anchor leg of a 4x100-meter relay exhibition during halftime of a Houston-Pitt college football game.
“I wanted to run fast enough to look good and slow enough so it didn’t end so fast,” Lewis, then in dreadlocks, told Sports Illustrated in 1997.
Lewis remembered that during his interview Tuesday.
“The greatest thing about my career is that probably one of the three greatest moments of my career was the day I retired,” he said. “Because I did it on the track I trained on every day. All my teammates were there, I knew that I was never going to get better again. I’ve never wanted to run a second since. I hear people all the time say, ‘God I retired too early,’ and I did not. I retired at the exact right time.”
Lewis also said the 100 meters, where he won back-to-back Olympic titles in 1984 and 1988, was his No. 3 event behind the long jump and the 200.
Back to the first pitch. It’s at least the third time Lewis has thrown a first pitch (with video evidence).
In 2003, his throw didn’t make it halfway to home plate at Safeco Field.
Earlier this year, Lewis gave up entirely and sprinted the ball from the mound to home plate.
We’ve also seen Lewis perform less than stellar in another pregame ceremony: