Steve Lewis 400m Final, 43.87 (WJR) - 1988 Seoul Olympics

19 year old Steve Lewis beats Butch Reynolds and Danny Everett in the 1988 Olympic 400m final with an amazing World Junior Record of 43.87, just short of Lee Evans Olympic record of 43.86. Butch Reynolds placed 2nd with 43.93 and Danny Everett 3rd with 44.09.

[@miamiorlando1]

Steve Lewis....43.87 at 19 years old. Unconscious. Mind boggling. Excellent.

[@yesnomaybe-666]

I saw Steve run the 400 back in high school. I knew he was something special. He still holds the World Junior Record for the 400 m (43.87).

[@terrystrahl3275]

smoked me every race 86-87 James Logan, he was putting down sub 50's. Most of us were lucky to break 60

[@bonstad]

he was a fantastic junior.

[@richardgallimore5976]

Responding to your comment 10 years later. He still has it. I think Quincy Wilson is the first athlete who will have a shot at this record, he has 2~3 more years.

[@musicfan1517]

Steve Lewis and Danny Everett were both at UCLA...with Mike Marsh, Kevin Young, and Gail Devers, all at UCLA, 1987-88...got a chance to watch them...All became Olympic track stars (Olympic medallists).

[@Visionary0001]

Henry Thomas and current LJ World Record holder Mike Powell were at UCLA during the 1986 season, so they overlapped with Marsh and Young. A few years before that, female WR holders Flo Jo and Jackie Joyner-Kersee were at also student-athletes at UCLA. Plus, a few years before that, WR holders Willie Banks and Evelyn Ashford were running at UCLA, also. Think about all of the World Record holders that UCLA produced!

[@ErikMalkavian]

Wow!! Butch Reynolds came off that last straight Like A BULLET!! That has be one of the fastest 100 meters ever run. Great Job by Steven Lewis to hold form and win the Gold Medal.

[@bonstad]

What?

[@richardgallimore5976]

@@bonstad Fastest closing 100m of a 400m I think he's saying. Although I'd assume Wayde Van Niekerk's 43.03 run has that now, if not Michael Johnson's 43.18 or *Spoiler Ahead* Quincy Hall's 43.40 to win Olympic Gold earlier today where he went from around 5th place to 1st over the last 100m, that close was legendary.

[@alezxen]

too bad injuries derail the true potential of Steve Lewis!!

[@michaelt2564]

What I don't understand is the inconsistency with the times....Butch Reynolds and Steve Lewis stopped running sub 44 sec times in the 90's. Should have they kept up that pace consistently throughout their career. Michael Johnson was consistent, he ran a total of sub 44 secs, 22 times in his career. Reynolds ran sub 44 3 times and Lewis only twice.

[@phastman]

It just shows the level of dominance that MJ had in the 400m. Sub 44s is such a rare feat and most people have only done it a few times in their career. Wariner and Merritt are tied for the 2nd most sub 44s performances at 9. It's also not as easy to be consistent in the 400m as it is in the 100m/200m

[@steveabrams2537]

I ran a 400m against Steve in high school. I turned the 300 and he was finished! Coincidentally I ran into him at the gym last week and asked what happened after the Barcelona games. He was living in the valley during the Northridge earthquake. When he tried to escape his apartment, he was knocked over and suffered a back injury that derailed his career.

[@docpj72]

Butch Reynolds just timed it a bit late-give Steve Lewis credit-a great race by him in his 20th year!

[@bonstad]

There is no timing there. They are all slowing down. Reynolds is just slowing down less.

[@Triekki]

I've always wanted to see this race, thanks for posting. Just unreal for a junior!!

[@intldawn]

I just love the classic British commentator shade right at the beginning, talking about how NOT to run a 400 meter and talking about the American women and Egbunike. It’s completely true, though. That Butch Reynolds world record race, you could hardly ask for a clearer example of the right and wrong way to run that race. Reynolds did it right while Egbunike ran “suicidally” fast in the first 250 and completely lost it in the last stretch. Brutally honest but completely accurate.

[@billv4987]

That commentator was the late, great Geoff Gowan - a track & field mainstay for many years on the CBC.

[@ZZLZ-cj8tl]

Excellent! Danny Everett our LION! from Fairfax High School! Congratulations! Five Stars***** Runner.

[@phastman]

@xcrunner000 I believe Kirani's final year as a junior was last year, he'll definitely beat 43.87 but just not as a junior

[@StewartJsR]

19 years my arse and juiced to the gills to boot. God Bless America

[@minavamp2811]

back in those days there were no out of competition testing, so many athletes doped. only in 1989 and after out of competition implemented, flo jo retired right after the olympics

[@phastman]

@ThomasRiekki No prob, ya I cant see this Junior record being touched for a looong time!

[@cesarmirandaabreu6091]

The times when anti doping tests were not that developped.

[@anthonyanderson9303]

Butch Reynolds' finishing ability was simply amazing. Too bad the IAAF banned him when they did cuz him and Johnson would have been a WAR in the early to mid 90's.

[@coolro3684]

Anthony Anderson too bad they did not ban Johnson as well as he was doping just as much.

[@docpj72]

Anthony Anderson Agree-it was a real shame that Butch was done once MJ was in his prime--Butch's finish in Zurich in 1988 was epic.

[@docpj72]

yeah-MJ was like Carl Lewis-dirty as the day is long but they had good coaching and smart to do avoid the positive tests-several positive drug tests in Seoul were thrown out since they were athletes from the U.S.-Joe De Loach being one of them...

[@Boassful]

N'oublions pas que le RM de l'époque était 43"86!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@MrNickSlaughter]

Raynolds speed on the last 100m was crazy. He accelerated like a ferrari.

[@dragonfly492]

Who is Raynolds? Butch Reynolds was in this race dude.

[@ohedd]

@alezxen I don't know.. You get injured for a reason and if he didn't eventually get injured, he wouldn't had ran as fast. Uwe Hohn is another example of a 22 year-old breaking the world record in the Javelin with over 5 meters - 104.80 - but he got injured too. I got plenty of examples of other athletes facing the same end to their careers. It's actually more of a rule.

[@phastman]

@carsten011640 yea its way off sync, sorry bout that

[@bensullivan5562]

1:55 notice it says "WR 43.86" in the bottom left hand corner when the WR was actually 43.29 by then.

[@andycano5756]

I don't think it was ratified by the time of these games in October.

[@intldawn]

Andy Cano Huh. Thats weird. Reynolds had set the record a few weeks earlier. Does it normally take the IAAF that long to ratify a record like that?

[@bonstad]

That was supposed to say Olympic Record

[@anthonyshelton2312]

That's a WJR or world junior record which are now called u20 (under 20 yo).

[@trickygoose2]

@@intldawn I think in those days, records were ratified at the end of the season. However, I do think TV companies usually tended to update their captions to show the latest record.

[@ShawnTrack781]

Anabody can touch this junior record !!

[@seanofafrica]

Cracking run by Lewis, but, oh, Butch, Butch, Butch - you messed your splits up big time, fella! If you hadn't left it so late you would have been the gold medalist, for sure.

[@binkyxz3]

"cracking good toast" -- Wallace (of Wallace & Grommet)

[@bonstad]

no acceleration there. He decelerated less than everyone else.

[@gmaxsfoodfitness3035]

@@bonstad It's called re-acceleration. There's a long cycle of deceleration and re-acceleration once top speed is reached in the 400m since it's such a long sprint. Michael Johnson has talked about this and what exact sections to focus on (200m mark is usually where he would make his move, ie. re-accelerate out of the pace he set in the first 80 meters or so). Starting at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, they started to televise speed graphs on the track showing acceleration, top speed and deceleration per every 5 or 10 meters which they introduced for the Men's 100m final. I've seen a graph for a 110m hurdles race where an athlete reached top speed twice (once early in the race and then they exceeded it after the last hurdle). When you analyze the whole race you see spots where they were picking up speed, where they slow down, where the pick up speed again ect. In a race like the 400m this sequence would happen over and over throughout the race. Think about all those middle distance and long distance races where athletes often re-accelerate into a sprint right before the line and tend to reach their fastest speed in that section of the race. Butch Reynold's in this particular race conserved so much energy in the first half by not accelerating too quickly that he was able to re-accelerate later and faster than everyone else in the race. Lewis didn't have enough energy to re-accelerate that late in the race and had used most of his energy up coming off the last bend (where I assume he last re-accelerated) and could only hold on and decelerate for the rest of the race.

[@bonstad]

@@gmaxsfoodfitness3035 It looks like that, but they are not accelerating. Believe me, of seen the splits of 100s of these races.

[@jhoncena1111]

It has to be raw talent!

[@valueinvestor77]

That’s a 19yo going on 40.

[@jaimesandoval1988]

Insane shit

[@MrClarksop]

on rocket fuel

[@funathle299]

This is the actually WRJ ? Or a holder ???????

[@phastman]

Yeah this is the World Junior Record to this day

[@funathle299]

@@phastman thanks

[@temp850]

Yes, Darren Clarke who came fourth would have won it or at least won a medal, without the drugs influence...

[@michaelmooney7341]

Wonder how many were on the juice? Alot of cover up on this Olympic

[@MrGroenland1]

Mythique le style de Butch Reynolds. Malheureusement pour lui, il à rater l'occasion de sa vie en partant comme un escargot

[@xcrunner000]

The question is... Will Kirani James beat this record?

[@carsten011640]

Is the sound off for everyone?

[@WithBACON]

"How to Lose an Olympic Final You Should Have Won Easily" by Harry "Butch" Reynolds.

[@paulwilliams6426]

He said he would regret his tactics in this race for the rest of his life. He would easily have run 43.50 had he ran faster earlier - he had so much left at the end it was ridiculous.

[@nateoliver2372]

Justin Robinson(USA)can get this record by 2021. He's 17 already running in the 44.8-45.0 region. He even has an outside shot of making the Olympic team in 2020

[@alansamuel2454]

Dude the guy did 44.8 breaking Obea Moore WYB which stood for 24 years. At the age of 17 he goes sub 45! Unbelievable. I think in the next 2 years we'll see a WR below 43 and a WJR below 44.5 maybe even below this record in the video. The guy's got two years to do it.

[@user-xg7lr2zb9k]

He still ain’t running 43 seconds today

[@StFidjnr]

Cbc version

[@johnjoseph7382]

Steve Lewis got no respect even in the recap.

[@FlabbyTitmuss]

The oldest looking 19 year old I've ever seen!

[@cornellstephenson3057]

Go to any inner city and you'll eat those words.

[@FlabbyTitmuss]

@@cornellstephenson3057 Huh?

[@Xtremt]

​@@cornellstephenson3057???what in the world are you talking about?????😮

[@gmaxsfoodfitness3035]

@@Xtremt He or she meant that if you go to the inner city you'll see teenagers that look much older than they are. I remember being in high school and this freshman started going there (he was maybe 13 or 14) and he was a big football player already and looked like he should be in college. He still got bigger though and last I checked he was playing semi-pro football. You could see it when he was still a kid that he was just more mature than everyone else. Another example is someone I met when he was 15 that had a thick mustache like a 40 year old already not the peach fuzz most young guys have in 10th grade.

[@Erikre33]

19years old what the actual fuck?

[@Boassful]

Donc les 43"87 ici prennent tous leurs

[@smartDefender4all]

why exactly did people back then did more 43s

[@WorldSacred]

It was not all that easy to run 400m in less than 44 seconds.

[@dragonfly492]

It's....why exactly did people back then DO more 43's

[@joanrussell1883]

Dragon Fly The field food was 89% chemicals free.😊

[@trickygoose2]

@Mitchell Heath That is before EPO was on the scene and it is of limited use in a sprint event anyway.

[@arsenal4274]

i say it again All on Drugs!!

[@WorldSacred]

Darren Clark would have hoped so... He ran clean.

[@cornellstephenson3057]

UnSubRocky , You do not know who was clean and who was using and neither does that idiot Allan Murphy.

[@slarsp2]

Naw, times weren't fast enough. But most people think 9.69 and shutting it down in the 100 was clean. Lol

[@jakkeday1]

Rubbish!

[@arsenal4274]

All on Drugs!!!

[@SocaPhD]

***** The Trini runner Ian Morris was running clean!

[@ErikMalkavian]

BullCRAP +Allan Murphy ... You are tallking out your A#$

[@docpj72]

haha-agree!

[@booleanbren]

Egbunike was clean

[@firstbornjordan]

I heard that the Australian Darren Clarke (44.55) 4th retired early because he couldn't compete against drug cheats.

[@metsdudenj]

Not one Communist country in the final? Amazing

[@redrum4100]

He paced his race all wrong. Should have won this by 2 yards or more.

[@user-em1of5vy6j]

Черный рассизм, в финале ни одного еврея. Вывод: США страна рассизма

[@HackerzInc]

Drugs...it has to be.