Houston alumnus, track coach and 10-time Olympic medalist Carl Lewis is no stranger to athletics events being disrupted by forces larger than sports.
In 1980, Lewis qualified for the Olympic track team that was set to compete in Moscow that summer, but the United States’ boycott of those games halted his Olympic aspirations for four more years and left a “what if?” asterisk in his heart, along with all the other qualified American athletes who never got to compete for the highest achievement possible in their respective sport.
Nearly 40 years later, Lewis recognizes both parallels and disparities between 1980 and what athletes across the globe are currently experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.