Lewis Takes Pot Shots At His Peers -- Controversial Track Star's Book Is Hot Stuff For Summer Reading

Carl Lewis not only is the fastest athlete entered in the Goodwill Games, he might be the most complicated.

He certainly is the most controversial now that his recent autobiography has poured gasoline on the already volatile world of track and field.

In the book, Lewis The Accused becomes Carl The Accuser, especially when it comes to naming names concerning use of performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids.

Lewis doesn't offer documentation but asserts that world-record sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner used drugs and that Bob Kersee, the coach and husband of world-record heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, has provided steroids to athletes.

In the autobiography, ``Inside Track, My Professional Life in Amateur Track and Field'' (Simon and Schuster, $19.95), Lewis says the yellow look of Ben Johnson's eyes when they lined up for the 100-meter dash in the 1988 Olympics confirmed his suspicion that the Canadian was on steroids.

Johnson won the race but tested positive and was stripped of the gold medal. Johnson's two-year banishment from track ends this fall, and there is talk of a multimillion dollar race between the two Olympic rivals.

Lewis' book is a hot story this summer. Co-authored by Jeffrey Marx, a former Pulitzer Prize winner, it is both compelling and, as most autobiographies, self-serving.

In the book, Lewis says a rejected girlfriend, Tudie McKnight, a Jamaican long-jumper who competed for Kansas, spread homosexual rumors about him even though ``she had been in bed with me more than enough times to know I was not gay.''

He also uses the book to deny taking drugs. Stern, the German magazine, accused him of drug use last year. Lewis responded in December with a $364 million libel suit. A defendant in the suit is Stern source Darrell Robinson, who starred at Wilson High School in Tacoma in the early 1980s.

Lewis devotes an entire chapter to attacking The Athletics Congress, the ruling body of track and field in the United States. He accuses TAC of ``killing'' the sport with poor promotion, closed-book financial policies and the lack of a credible drug policy. He says the facade of track as an ``amateur'' sport not only is misleading but makes it easier for athletes to be exploited.

He also accuses TAC of maneuvering to keep his Santa Monica Track Club out of an English meet and prying into his finances.

However, Lewis has reached a truce with TAC and has been singing a song of conciliation recently. Still, it's a fragile alliance.

Lewis brands Larry Myricks, his chief competitor in the long jump, as ``a choker'' in the book and accuses hurdler Edwin Moses of having avoided good competition to keep his winning streak alive.

The book launches a far more serious accusation against Russ Rogers, 1988 Olympic assistant coach. Lewis writes that Rogers acted as an agent and made the selections for the 400-meter relay that favored ``his'' athletes. The U.S. was disqualified in the preliminaries at Seoul because of a botched baton handoff.

``An outrage,'' is how Lewis terms the whole affair.

Such bluntness stopped surprising Tom Tellez, Lewis' longtime coach, years ago.

``Carl is very sincere and very honest,'' Tellez told The Times. ``He's outspoken and says what he wants to say. . . . He's a great athlete and a great person. . . . I've never had a better team man. . . . He's so sincere and up-front that people don't understand it. They just read into Carl what they want to read. The more I'm around him, the more I admire the guy. I admire him for all that he's done and all the pressure he's taken.''

Lewis picked Tellez and the University of Houston over schools he said made illegal offers when he was a high-school phenom in New Jersey. He writes that one coach offered a car and another offered the Lewis family ``help'' in securing a sporting-goods franchise.

While at Houston, Lewis approached Nike and accepted equipment and money in violation of NCAA rules.

Lewis, 29, will be the marquee athlete in the Goodwill Games. He is a human jet-pack who competed in the Olympics in 1980 at age 19 and will try to make his fourth Olympic team in 1992.

In the 1984 Olympics, he won four gold medals. He picked up two more in Seoul, winning the long jump (he is undefeated since 1981) and the 100 after Johnson was disqualified.

Lewis holds the world record for the 100-meter dash (9.92 seconds) after better marks by Johnson were erased because of steroid use.

Despite the achievements, Lewis is a celebrity who hasn't been able to cash in fully on his fame in his home country. He enjoys his greatest acceptance in Europe, where track is a major-league sport, and in Japan.

In the U.S., where interest in track has dropped as drug headlines have increased, Lewis has been labeled arrogant and greedy.

He is haunted by a 1984 remark by his manager, Joe Douglas, before the Los Angeles Olympics: ``We think we can make as much as Michael Jackson.''

In his book, Lewis called Douglas' remark ``a comparison we could could have done without.''

How much Lewis is receiving for competing in the Goodwill Games isn't known. Under a published formula, he was going to get $23,000 as a member of the U.S. team who held a world record and an Olympic gold medal. However, this week it was announced he had withdrawn as a team member but would compete as an ``invited athlete.'' A TAC spokesman said he didn't know how much Lewis would receive.

Lewis grew up in an athletic family that moved from Alabama to New Jersey. His mother and father were teachers and coaches. His father, William, died in 1987 and was buried with the gold medal Lewis won in the 100 at the Los Angeles Olympics. His sister, Carol, was a long-jumper on the U.S. team in L.A.

Lewis' religious beliefs - a combination of Christianity and teachings from guru Sri Chinmoy - reveal his complexity. So do his forgettable attempts at professional singing and acting.

``He's a performer. He loves to perform,'' said Tellez, referring primarily to Lewis' track ability.

Fortunately for the Games, he will perform in Seattle.