​Carl Lewis had just turned 23 in the summer of 1984, and not only were the Olympics arriving in Los Angeles, also coming were four gold medals, magazine covers, television gigs, instant stardom and a name that would never be forgotten, all for him.By now, all these years later, Carl Lewis and L.A. are old friends, long-lost pals, both having moved on over the decades. However, in exactly two years, the Summer Olympics return to L.A., and Lewis will be there with them.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”Poignant’s a word, emotional is a word,” Lewis said in a July 14 phone interview. “I mean, it’s two years from now, but it’s tomorrow, because we know how time flies. I was thinking earlier today that I remember exactly where my parents were sitting for the 100 meters. And I think that when I go back to the Coliseum, I’ll just look across there and just say, ‘Mom and Dad are standing there and sitting there,’ and it’s going to be a lot.”Lewis’ father died in 1987, his mother in 2023. “I guess the word innocence isn’t the right word, but it was, still. It was the last time in my life that it was all of us there together, because my parents coached a track club, so all those years we traveled with them, did everything, and then the L.A. Olympics was like the last time we did that. It was never the same again.”Carl Lewis attends LA28 Two Years Out at Griffith Park on July 14, 2026 in Los Angeles.L.A. 1984, meet L.A. 2028. Lewis, now 65, will be there, and most likely in two roles, not one. He is an official ambassador of the LA28 volunteer program, which just opened applications for as many as 60,000 volunteers from around the world who will be needed for the 2028 Olympics.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd, as the head coach of the men’s and women’s track teams at his alma mater, the University of Houston – a job he said he “never thought” he would be doing – he is expected to place a few sprinters on the U.S. track and field team that will compete in venerable L.A. Memorial Coliseum, which will be hosting competition not just for a second Olympics, but a third, going back to the city’s first Summer Games in 1932.Legacy: Carl Lewis among the 20 greatest U.S. track stars of all time1 / 18Jesse Owens(Getty Images)Advocating for volunteers is an affinity that brings Lewis closer to his late parents. “One of the things that I got out of growing up, which I didn’t realize then, is my parents ran this track club every year, and I watched them serve the community.”As Lewis marched through the 1984 Games, winning the men’s 100, 200, 4×100 relay and long jump and matching Jesse Owens’ majestic performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, a battalion of volunteers were nearby.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“When I lived here in L.A. for a while,” Lewis said, “a lot of people came up to me, just randomly, and would say, ‘I was a volunteer at the 1984 L.A. Games,’ and I saw this or did that. They