Carl Lewis on Noah Lyles, Simone Biles, Olympics history and Tide partnership

Olympic athletes are just like us — they get stains, too. Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis knows best. All throughout his career, he has been using Tide to get his stains when he was participating in the long jump event.

"I was always washing. That's why this relationship with Tide is so sick because I wasn't just the guy who ran the race and had to wash the stuff out and go the next day. I had to scrub the dirt out from the long jump pits every day," Lewis said about his partnership with Tide.

Growing up in Willingboro New Jersey, Lewis was a late bloomer who was in a track club that his parents started. In his junior year of high school, his mom was 5-foot-7, his younger sister was 5-foot-9, and Lewis stood at 5-foot-5. That part ate him alive the most. Since his body wasn't growing at a rapid pace, he worked on technique until his growth spurt hit.

Everything happened rapidly once Lewis' body caught up to his mentality. It all started to click in his senior year of high school in 1982. He went to the University of Houston, where he now coaches the track and field team. As a 23-year-old, he competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

It all became history after that.

It's rare to see a track and field athlete compete in more than one event. Jesse Owens inspired Lewis at a young age; he wanted to be just like him and compete and, most importantly, win. Owens competed in four events, so Lewis wanted to do the same. He turned 23 just one month before his first Olympic games, and as a young athlete, he went for the gold in four different events.

"I didn't know any better, to be honest. I was too young and dumb. I wasn't supposed to be doing that, and then once I did it that young, then I was dumb enough to say I could do it again," Lewis said about his decision to compete in 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump, and 4 x 100-meter relay.

The 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles were historic for track and field as Lewis earned gold in all four of his competitions. He entered those games on a quest to beat Owens.

He ran an 8.88 to defeat fellow American Sam Graddy by 0.2 seconds to win his first gold medal of the games. He then won with ease in the long jump event. It continued in the 200m when he won at a time of 19.80, which set an Olympic record at the time and is still the third fastest time in history to this day. He rounded out the games with a gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay as he harbored the race's last leg and broke the tape, which set a new world record of 37.83 seconds.

Competing in four events went to Lewis's favor, as he racked up a total of nine gold medals throughout his career. However, one silver medal was awarded at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988 for the 200-meter race. While many athletes and spectators can think getting silver is another form of losing, Lewis thinks the complete opposite. He still won the medal but didn't run fast enough for the gold.

As a coach at Houston, Lewis says the most significant thing to focus on is what you can control. He tells his athletes that they improve in practice and show it in the meet. It's the same advice that he was given. When he began his career in track and field he had no expectation for himself to win the Olympics even once. So if an athlete comes up to him and says they want to win the Olympics, he always says, "You have no control over that." Lewis instead shows his athletes that they need to train for their personal best time.

Lewis was an athlete competing in the 1980s through the 1990s when technology and health were in a completely different state than they are today. Some traditionalists bring a negative perspective on today's generational athletes, but Lewis thinks nothing but positive. But the bigger issues are outside of the competition instead, and it is how these younger athletes perceive their life and their self-image through social media. He never had to deal with that during his athletic career. Lewis said he would have loved to have social media because of the empowerment that he would have felt as a young athlete.

So, being the figure that Lewis is, he always shows his support for all Team USA athletes. More recently, he has been involved in conversations with gymnast Simone Biles, who made her comeback to this year's Olympic games. Lewis knows the things that Olympic athletes have to deal with, and while it was a long time ago, he also experienced similar situations. Lewis and Biles stay in touch from time to time, but when he heard she was struggling he wanted to reach out because he knows he's never running again but he wants to help anyone work in any way possible,

Along with his relationship with Biles, he also has a strong one with Noah Lyles, the other half of the Tide partnership.

Lyles is a track and field athlete who has faced severe controversy through social media through several of his comments. In addition, being an active and loud athlete on social media has brought him both positive and negative attention.

Working together on the campaign was fun for the two during the takes and outtakes and all things for the commercial. And now, with the two being in Paris for the Olympic games, they have continued their relationship.

But when Lewis thinks about his conversations with Lyles he doesnt look at that as adivce but more just information.

"I was excited and really happy when I was able to work with Noah because he's a great kid. I'm really, really, really rooting for him," Lewis said.

While stains happen to everyone, not everyone also can say they have nine gold medals like Carl Lewis can.