After Dinner Speakers: Carl Lewis, Miranda Richardson, Virginia Wade

Carl Lewis, one of the greatest athletes of the last century, who won gold medals in four different events. Born Fredrick Carlton Lewis in Birmingham, Alabama: The same county of Jesse Owens, his idol and his fathers’ friend. Lewis’s amazing tally of championships may well have been greater but for the American boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980. In the 1998 Olympic games in Seoul he was beaten in to second place by Ben Johnson, the Canadian who was sensationally later disqualified for drug taking, his promotion to first was further confirmation of his supremacy over an up and coming Brit., Linford Christie. Finally retiring in 1997, Carl Lewis has run more sub 10 second 100m and won more World and Olympic golds than any other athlete. A true champion and master of self-motivation, Carl Lewis remains an enduring personality and influence in the world of athletics.