He said that Kirk Baptiste would place second and Thomas Jefferson would take third. I would win the 200, and it would be an American sweep. Then Sri Chinmoy left me with a prediction. Not questions about athletic ability, questions about character and personality. He had been thinking about the race, and he wanted to ask a few questions about some of my competitors. One other thing I remember Sri Chinmoy talking about: the 200-meter finals. Keep your faith, and you will keep going. “Spiritually, as well, you are touching a lot of people. Guru told me he was proud of me, and he kept everything extremely positive. I visited him at a house he had rented, and we meditated, focusing on letting the power of the spiritual world carry me through the rest of the Olympics. In his autobiography, Inside Track, Carl Lewis tells the following story.Īfter winning the gold medal in the long jump in Los Angeles, I had a pleasant, uplifting meeting with Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy offered Carl the spiritual name Sudhahota, Bengali for “Unparalleled sacrificer of Immortality’s Nectar-Delight.” During some of his tensest moments - often before critical competitions - Carl met with Sri Chinmoy for inner support, as before the 200-metre finals in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. You have to convince your entire being that the whole Olympic stadium is for you, because you are not representing any particular country or race, but the entire earth. Try to feel that the whole earth is behind you and that you are getting blessings, love, concern, determination and oneness from the entire earth. Carl very sympathetically coached Sri Chinmoy in sprinting, and Sri Chinmoy wholeheartedly encouraged and guided Carl in his stellar athletic career, travelling to several Olympic Games. This was nearly a year before Carl’s first Olympic competition in Los Angeles, at a time when Sri Chinmoy was intensely involved in running as a way to keep the body fit and as a form of spiritual discipline. In November 1983, the renowned Grammy award-winning music producer Narada Michael Walden brought Carl to meet Sri Chinmoy at his New York headquarters. Narada Michael Walden, Sri Chinmoy and Carl Lewis in 1998 To win nine gold medals is practically unheard of! And yet that is exactly what the great American athlete Carl Lewis accomplished, earning him many accolades, including the title “Best Olympian of the 20th Century” from Sports Illustrated. To win one gold medal at the Olympic Games is an extraordinary feat. USA The Champion-Hero Supreme Sri Chinmoy passes the baton to Carl Lewis for the final leg of a Peace Mile Relay race in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York, 1989.