Carl Lewis is running…for New Jersey Senate. Would he say he is Gay?

Olympic superstar Carl Lewis on Monday announced his candidacy for the New Jersey State Senate. He didn’t shy away from the obvious double entendre in his announcement:

“When I run, as you see my record, I run to win,” he said at a news conference Monday in Mount Holly in Burlington County. “I’m slower than I used to be, so you can probably keep up, but I’m going to be running.”

Lewis has been pretty quiet over the last decade (not a bad thing given his butchering of the national anthem 18 years ago). But speculation about his sexual orientation has already come back just hours after his announcement. Speculation has circulated since the early 1980s that Lewis is gay, with many claiming that perception cost the Olympic champ many endorsement deals. Comments on various stories on the Web raised the question of Lewis’ sexual orientation. If he is in fact gay, running for State Senate sure isn’t a great way to stay in the shadows of the closet.

He was my first sports hero; For that alone I wish him much luck and success.