Carl Lewis interview: I show students my old races when they get snarly

Carl Lewis with Louie Hinchliffe after the Briton won the national 100m title in Manchester at the weekend - David Davies/PA

A nudge here. “Was that who I think it was?” A tap on the shoulder there. “Did you see him?”

Even the most blinkered British Athletics Championships organisers would struggle to argue against last weekend’s event being described as a modest affair. A 6,500 capacity – not sold out, it must be noted – Manchester Regional Arena bears little resemblance to the Stade de France’s abundant glamour for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

So, it was with no little bemusement that those few spectators in attendance at the bitterly cold, rain-soaked track noted the unlikely sprinkling of stardust in their midst.

In his competitive heyday, America’s nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis made something of a habit of Brit-baiting. On the track Linford Christie was his primary target, off it Daley Thompson’s crude antics put the decathlete in the firing line. Yet here Lewis was doing his bit to help the British cause.

This is Lewis’s first year as head track and field coach at the University of Houston, his alma mater, and his leading male sprinter is a Briton.

When Sheffield native Louie Hinchliffe first spoke to Lewis after initially sending him an unsolicited email last year, the American boldly told him that he would qualify for the Paris Olympics. “Was I confident?” Lewis now ponders. “Absolutely not. Are you f*****g kidding me?”

But he recognised something in Hinchliffe that he believed he could harness. More importantly, he knew the delicate art of motivation.

Hinchliffe (far left) celebrates winning the 100m at a competition that doubled as the Olympic trials - Michael Steele/Getty Images

Hinchliffe had almost given up on athletics altogether during a fresher year at Lancaster University that involved far more frequent visits to the pub than the athletics track. But after switching his studies Stateside and transferring to Lewis’s group late last year, a latent talent was unearthed.

Last month he became the first European ever to claim the NCAA 100m title – America’s premier national collegiate competition – when clocking 9.95 seconds to move sixth on the British all-time list. Watched on by Lewis in Manchester on Saturday, he followed up by delivering the British title to book his Team GB spot for Paris.

The personal touch is a service Lewis offers to everyone on his team in Texas, travelling to support every athlete at their first national championships on his watch. Such an undertaking begs the question of why a figure of his stature bothers with such an inconvenience.

“S—, I have nine gold medals and I’m rich,” he says, wearing his University of Houston top and Paris 2024 cap in the Manchester drizzle. “I don’t need the attention. I’m not trying to convince anyone to join us.

“But it gives me the freedom to go out and say what the hell I want to say and do what I want to do. I was second on the [University of Houston] school record list and now I’m sixth.”

As well as Hinchliffe, Lewis will have South African Shaun Maswanganyi – a 9.91sec sprinter – competing in the 100m in Paris. Lewis’s own fastest time is looming in their sights: the 9.86sec world record he clocked to claim the 1991 world title.

Carl Lewis at Los Angeles 1984, where the American won four of his nine Olympic golds - David Cannon /Allsport

Lewis’s backlog of personal accomplishments, unrivalled by any male sprinter bar Usain Bolt, provides the perfect riposte should any of his young charges turn haughty.

“Sometimes I will get my old races up on my phone and show it to them when they get a bit snarly,” he says, laughing. “Stay in your lane, young man.”

Not that Hinchliffe provides much evidence of a conceited upstart. Lewis describes the new British champion as “pretty low key and unassuming”, but with huge potential.

“He can definitely be one of the best that Britain’s ever had,” he predicts. “He’s run 9.95 and he can run faster. The sky’s the limit and that’s the fun part.

“My job is to say: ‘Great, we made the Olympics but it doesn’t end here, you have to go to the next level’. Now the goal is to make the final because anyone in the final can win.”

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Few know the feeling of topping the podium better than a man who won nine Olympic and eight world titles, including 100m gold in 1984 and 1988. His sprint dominance had waned by the 1992 Games, opening the door for rival Christie to claim Britain’s most recent Olympic 100m crown.

Now fulfilling similar roles as coaches, Lewis and Christie twice bumped into each other in the warm-up area in Manchester, although anyone expecting fireworks would have been disappointed.

“It’s so funny because people have reached out saying: ‘Oh, are you going to see Linford?’” says Lewis. “I’m like: ‘Dude I’m 63, I’ve got grandkids, you think I’m thinking about track 80 years ago?’

“He’s been coaching people and helping people’s lives. Once you turn 50, you erase everything. He’s still one of the greats of all time. We’re going to meet again.”

Lewis and Christie, the unlikeliest of odd couples guiding Britain’s next sprint generation.

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