Olympic champion Carl Lewis officially dedicated the eponymous running track at Palisades High last Thursday in front of a Stadium by the Sea packed with the student body. Lewis and the captains of the PaliHi track team ran a celebatory lap around the recently completed bright-blue track. PaliHi cheerleaders led the students in a cheer before Citizen of the Year Bob Jeffers unveiled the donor plaque that will be permanently placed on a wall of the stadium. Calling Lewis an honorary Dolphin, Jeffers noted that although the world-class sprinter had won 10 Olympic medals in track and field’nine gold and one silver–he had never won bronze. He presented Lewis with a ‘bronze’ scale model of his long jumps marks that will be placed adjacent to the long-jump pit. Jeffers joked that he would personally pay for college for any student who could out-jump Lewis’ personal best record of 29-1 ‘. ‘This is a proud moment for me,’ Lewis told the students, ‘but it should also be a proud moment for you. This is your school.’ He went on to challenge them. ‘They say you can be whatever you want to be, but I say, you will be whatever you want to be. It’s your choice.’ Lewis has homes both in the Palisades Highlands and in Willingboro, New Jersey, where he grew up. ‘These are my two homes, these are my two schools,’ he said. The Willingboro high school has also named its school track for the star. Lewis has spent much of the last six months on the East Coast, working on a television show that will be aired during the summer Olympics in Beijing. ‘It will be a live-tape show, a combination of sports, lifestyles and events that will be simulcast all over the world,’ Lewis told the Palisadian-Post. After the official dedication Thursday, Lewis worked with PaliHi’s track team for three hours, and even though he is currently too busy to be at the track on a full-time basis, he has offered to look at the coach’s workouts and make suggestions or give additional workouts if coach Ron Brumel would like them. Through his foundation, Lewis wants to invite other celebrities and athletes to ‘Adopt a School.’ He envisions the stars going back to the high school they attended and providing students with support, as well as mentoring. After the Olympics, Lewis would also like to start an age-group track club based in the Palisades. ‘We have to invest in our youth,’ said Lewis, who is disgusted that PE has been taken out of many public schools and is not supported with state and federal funding. ‘Everything is the individual, it’s about me, me, me, me,’ Lewis said. ‘We’ve lost our sense of community and helping others.’ Lewis began running with the track club in Willingboro that his mother started for his older sister, at a time when there were far fewer sports for girls in public schools. ‘My parents started the club in 1969, and in 11 years they had three Olympians,’ Lewis said. ‘I was a horrible runner as a kid. It wasn’t until the end of high school that I started doing well. The fastest kids aren’t always the fastest adults. I was 5’5′ in 10th grade and all I wanted to do was be taller than my mom, who was 5’7,’ said Lewis, who grew to her height in 11th grade and kept on growing after graduating. ‘Kids just have to hang in there. As I grew, I ran faster,’ he said. He now stands 6’3′ and is in great shape.
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