February 4, 2009 - DCUS: I’m standing here with World Olympian, Carl Lewis at the Washington Auto Show.  Carl, how are you?

Carl Lewis:   Great!  I’m just glad to be in DC.  I’m actually in town to work on a scholarship program with the U.S. Olympic Committee [administration] so I’m really excited about that.  The whole idea is to try to get education to athletes who are not in the primary sports, many of which are urban kids that need an opportunity, so I really excited to be included in that – and here we are at the Show, because I love autos.”

DCUS:  What is your favorite car here at the Auto Show?

CL:  My favorite car at the show is the TESLA.  I just drove one and I can’t wait to get on Face Book and all that stuff to tell people.  (Google his face book page).   I’ve always been about technology, I love cars.  I know everything about them, so when I actually have a chance to drive them I just have to.  It’s [the TESLA] really pretty amazing, it takes some getting used to at first, but I’ve never driven a car like it.  It’s so quick and easy to drive, it was amazing.

DCUS:   0-60 in 3.9 seconds.

CL:  Right, 0-60 in 3.9.  It’s not just the 0-60, but if you’re going 30 [mph] it’s like 30-50 in one second.  It’s amazing, the torque and how fast it goes.

DCUS:   Do you have a web site for the scholarship program that you’re working on?

 CL:  “The US Olympic Committee, and I’m working with them on that, but of course I have my own web site, and you can go to www.carllewis.com and see all the things that I’m doing, because I have a program that works with youth and family, and fitness, and that type of thing.  There’s a lot of things, I’m really excited about it.  What’s really most exciting is that now we have a president that cares about the community, and I’m glad that the word ‘we’ is back in everyone’s talk again and it’s an exciting time.”

“I’m looking forward to working with them (USOC), but the entire country can help build our brand again.  The Olympic Committee has a lot of great young athletes that are trying to do the right thing, and our communities have a lot of great athletes that we need to give our time to, and I feel I  can only ask people to lead if I’m doing it, too, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”

On Olympic Swimmer, Michael Phelps

DCUS:  Speaking of the Olympics, you know I gotta ask you this. I gotta go there.   What are your thoughts on the Michael Phelps situation?

CL: Personally I know Michael very well; as a matter of fact I was with him….. 

INTERRUPTION

DCUS:  Did you smoke with him?

CL:  [Laughing] “No, but I knew that question was coming.” No, I’d rather buy a pair of shoes, honestly.”  I don’t smoke, and do all that stuff. I don’t smoke, and I don’t gamble at all.”

“I don’t like to give excuses for people, because people have to except responsibility, which he did, but the bottom line is I think people need to step up in his life and make sure he’s accountable.”

“When you sign a contract, it’s no different than getting a job, and when you do that then all of a sudden there are clauses in there that state things that you are not supposed to do.  There’s a morals clause in everyone’s contract.  So, he’s a young person that needs better guidance, and I’m not saying his family, because I’m not going to judge, but part of your management’s job is for you to understand everything.   Part of the reason we’re in trouble with the economy is because people didn’t understand the papers they were signing, so what I’m doing is appealing, not only to him, to understand that, because he has an opportunity to make a difference in a lot of kids lives.  I know him; he’s a very, very nice and engaging young man.”

 It’s easy to get caught up in the world, and it’s easy to get caught up in this society and what’s going on, and I think he’s a stand up guy, and I hope his people step up and help this young brother, young guy, to do the right thing.  Because people do look up to him and he does have a great message.

DCUS:  Seems we’ve been bombarded with a lot of negativity in the sports world, how did you manage to stay away from all that?

CL: “I’m going to give you two things about it.  Number one, I stayed away because people around me didn’t want to have it.  My coach wasn’t into it… my family, my parents, who were tremendous in my life.  I had two wonderful parents who were both teachers, and I would never embarrass them, so it was never even a thought, and they supported me to do the right thing.   They would have known if I even tried it, and they would have been on me, because most of my life I was in a school where they taught at, so I couldn’t even get away from them during the day time.”

“But I think we have a problem, that society has a problem, and there are two things that I’m really against that’s happening in America.  It’s this program with kids where everybody wins.  When you tell kids that everybody wins, that’s the wrong message.  We need to tell kids ‘everybody tries their best’.  Because when you say everybody wins, well all of a sudden you’re eighteen and you’re not winning any more, and somebody says take this drug, now all of a sudden you equate success with just winning and not with being the best you can be.”

“I play cello, I was a soccer player, but I ran track because I was better at that.  But if I came up with that specialization program at twelve years-old, then I would have been a soccer player that no one would have known.”

On staying in shape

DCUS:  You’re obviously still in shape.  Still fit. What’s your workout program?

CL:  “I have a gym at home, and I watch my diet.  Anyone can out eat exercise. [Laughing]  That’s my line.  So, it can’t be in the gym, it has to be in the kitchen first.  So I watch my diet.  I have mostly a vegetarian diet.  Of course, sometimes if I wanna eat something, I do.”

DCUS:  What would be that one [unhealthy] thing that you’d want to eat?

CL:  Let me tell you something.  I am a sucker for potato chips.  So, I'm the type of person who’d say if you have a vice don’t get the baked ones. Are you kidding me?  My vice is potato chips, so I get the real ones.  [Laughing]… and I think everyone has to have that.  Take away 90% of the bad things, and keep the 10%, because you’re going to get 90% of the benefit.  That’s how I approach it.

DCUS:  How’s your sister?

CL:  “Carol’s doing fine.  She’s spending the winter in Vail (Colorado).  She and her boyfriend are in Vail for the winter.  I thought she’d be doing that in the summer when it wasn’t snowing, but she likes to ski.  She’s doing well.”

Carl is also starting a foundation in his home town of Willingburg, New Jersey.

"I think you have to show young people the message you want them to see, you just can’t talk about it."