Photo credits: Tony Duffy/Allsport

Carl Lewis was an American track-and-field sensation who won 10 Olympic medals, nine of them gold, in a career that spanned from 1979 until his last Olympic Games in 1996. Lewis won 10 World Championship medals, with eight of those being gold.

On Aug. 10, 1984, he achieved a record set in 1936 by Jesse Owens in the Olympic Games in Berlin. During the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Lewis would become one of the best known sporting celebrities in the world and a household name in the United States by winning four gold medals in a single Olympic Games.

Lewis, who was born in 1961, has been voted “Sportsman of the Century” by the International Olympic Committee and was named “Olympian of the Century” by Sports Illustrated. He also helped transform track and field from its nominal amateur status to its current professional status, enabling athletes to have more lucrative and longer-lasting careers.

In 2011 he attempted to run for a seat as a Democrat in the New Jersey State Senate. However, he was removed from the ballot due to the state’s residency requirement. Lewis owns a marketing and branding company named C.L.E.G., which markets and brands products and services.

Source: Jonathan P. Hicks for BET Network via BET.com