I’M CARL LEWIS! (SXSW 2025) – Review by Leslie Combemale

If Julie Anderson and Chris Hay’s documentary I’m Carl Lewis! proves one thing, it’s that the legendary track and field star and Olympian was misunderstood then and largely continues to be misunderstood and under appreciated to this day. Lewis was decades ahead of his time, and indeed maligned about subjects that, now, make celebrity athletes even more appealing to advertisers and fans alike.

In present day, Lewis, who is 63, is interviewed at home, where he is clearly comfortable and at peace. What is striking, though, is the consistency of his demeanor. He is completely confident in his own skin and with his talent. He is unapologetically straightforward, and knows his own worth. For folks watching today, the way he speaks as a proud Black man is the norm. In the 80s, it was anything but. Footage of interviews with both Lewis himself and sports and newscasters of the time show just how much coded racism he dealt with on a daily basis. When he called into question the fact that amateur athletics kept the athletes down while gleaning hundreds of millions for networks and the Olympics machinery, they called him greedy. When he designed his own running suit, or stretched out into the music industry, or declared he was smart, they called him arrogant. When he made strong claims about drug use in the sport (which turned out to be true), they ignored him until they couldn’t ignore him anymore. When he played with gender norms, as with the famous photograph by Annie Leibovitz in red stiletto heels, they dubbed him “the flying f*gg*t”. As one of his friends says, “in any other country in the world he would be a god, but not in America.”

All the hate from newscasters and fair weather fans targeted a Black man at the top of his game being his authentic self. What makes I’m Carl Lewis! such a joy to watch is seeing he is the very same man he was when he was winning gold medal after gold medal. He didn’t care what people thought then, and he doesn’t now. The documentary really brings home just how forward-thinking and courageous Carl Lewis has been his entire career and life, and sports fans should be here for it.

4 out of 5 stars.