The sporting world has witnessed several athletes who made it to the pinnacle of success from humble beginnings. It was their sheer resilience and self-belief that made them superstars in their own regard. American track and field legend Carl Lewis is one such name. He is often regarded as one of the most successful athletes in the world, having won ten Olympic medals and eight world championship titles.

Apart from the aforementioned accolades, the Birmingham native also has a fortune of $8 million and is one of the richest athletes out there. However, things were not the same for him during the formative days of his life, and not many are aware that the phenom once used to do odd jobs to meet his daily needs. Lewis recovered old memories in a recent interview and got candid about his early days.

 Carl Lewis was a newspaper boy in the bygone era?

The eight-time world champion sat for an interview on Audiorama’s YouTube channel, where the American prodigy shared the tidbits of his career while talking about attaining the zenith of success as a sprinter and a long jump athlete. When asked if he did any odd jobs while growing up, he said, “I always wanted money; I did it’s just like. I had a paper route, and when I look back on the paper route, on Sundays, I wouldn’t ride my bike; I’d run. My mother or father would lead the papers in the car, and I’d run from the car. Just run. Here again, all this stuff that was instinctive that I didn’t think about,” he states.

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It was also the time when he started setting goals for himself at the age of 12 or 13, he says, and once he hit the door of accomplishments, there was no looking back for him ever since. Carl Lewis is one of the rarest of the rare athletes who has won Olympic and world championship golds in two very different track and field disciplines. The Alabama-based athlete broke into the headlines after he won four Olympic golds during the 1984 Los Angeles event. Furthermore, vending newspapers weren’t the sole unconventional occupation he pursued for income.

He always possessed the spark within

Carl Lewis affirmed that he had almost everything he needed, yet he wanted money, and for that, cutting lawns was one of the primary side hustles that he did, which he said he hated. “I took this lawn mower, but I don’t want to cut lawns; I hate cutting grass, so I got two or three friends, and I started getting houses to do the lawns,” he says.

The nine-time Olympic gold medalist stated that the friends used to cut the grass, and then they used to split the money they got in return. He also revealed that he got caught when his parents noticed the missing lawn mower, and then the athlete had to stop mowing lawns. Having said that, Carl Lewis became one of the most renowned faces of US track and field back in the day, captivating fans with his story and inspiring perseverance.

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