CARL LEWIS won his ninth Olympic gold medal on Monday night, and still it wasn't enough. By winning a track and field event for the fourth successive time he tied a record held by another US athlete, Al Oerter, who monopolised the discus from 1956 to 1968.

And he drew level with the record for the all-time number of gold medals, jointly held by the Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi, the Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina and the US swimmer Mark Spitz. He thinks there should be more to come.

In the US trials he tried to get into the 100 metres and the sprint relay teams. He came last in the 100, and was left out. But when the relay team lines up in Saturday's final, he would like to be there. Then he would stand alone.

"I think I'm in good shape," he said, an hour after producing a jump of 27 feet 10 3/4 inches to beat Joe Greene and James Beckford - and the stricken world record holder, Mike Powell - in the long jump. "If it was up to me I'd be anchoring that relay and I'd be doing a great job. But it's up to the coaches and I guess they've made their decision. I wish it were my decision because I'd be there. Who wouldn't take the chance?"

With Powell under treatment for a pulled groin after collapsing into the pit like a broken doll in his final jump, Lewis had lapped up the applause from the 82,000 crowd. He would love to be voted back into the relay team by popular acclaim.

"I don't want to whine and bicker," he said, "because I don't want to spoil the moment. I've been around every single Olympic experience that people can imagine. The only experience left would be to be the all-time gold medal winner. It's kind of sad that it's the only thing that's not up to me.

Somewhere not so far back in his mind is the memory of the time an American crowd gave him a very different response. It was 12 years and, as he put it. "about 16 hairstyles" ago that he was booed for refusing to take a final shot at the world record after he had already won the long jump gold medal in the Los Angeles Games, and was saving himself for other events to come.

Lewis has often evoked an ambivalent response. The current controversy pits him against Michael Johnson, the other man of Monday night. Johnson banished the bad memories of a broken leg in 1988 and a bout of food poisoning in 1992 by winning the 400 metres, failing to break Butch Reynolds's world record, but moving his gold shoes fast enough to beat the Olympic one lap record by shaving a hundredth of a second off Quincy Watts's Barcelona time.

Johnson recently said something to the effect that it was time and move over. "I've never said he needs to pass the torch to me," Johnson protested unconvincingly when asked if in the light if Lewis's ninth medal, his words might have been premature.

"What I've said is that as far as Carl trying to continue to be the premier athlete in track and field is concerned, if that's what he's trying to do, I think he should step down from that. I'm not in any competition with Carl for that. I'm just out here trying to win as many gold medals as possible and make history so that I can put my name up with the great athletes in the history of track and field, like Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens."

A few minutes later Lewis was asked about Johnson's alleged presumption. "I don't know what anyone has to do to pass on a torch," he observed sweetly. "There is no manual on that. What Michael needs to realise is that there's room for many people. It's not just about one or two people."

But mostly for Lewis, as for any great athlete, it has indeed been about making one person the centre of the universe. "This medal, the ninth, is the most special," he said, "because it took the most focus and the most pain. After the world championships last year I was injured but I said, `This can't be the end of it.' I went to the weights room and I worked hard and lost some weight. I had to do blue-collar work in 40-degree weather in March."

Did he think there would be a second Carl Lewis? "There isn't a second anybody. There hasn't been a second Jesse Owens. I hope that there will be many new stars who bring their own thing to the deal. I brought a lot of passion and I've always done what I believed in. I took a lot of criticism, but I received a lot of joy and support. I hope that my records are broken some day." Those particular targets aren't in the 28-year-old Johnson's sights. "That's good," was his deadpan reaction to the news of Lewis's ninth. "Congratulations to him. I don't think I'll be able to get that many gold medals in my career, but hopefully I'll be able to do some other things that haven't been done before.".

Johnson's past disappointments were well and truly exorcised. "What I did today made up for '92. Everything I went through is worth it now. I can never go back and get that medal, but it's a great feeling to be able to say I'm finally an individual gold medallist."

The stadium had been expecting a world record to go with the gold. "I'm not disappointed at all, about that," he said. "One day maybe I'll get it. I think I will. You have to go into this realising what's important.

Johnson will be back today, when he starts his 200 metres campaign. But for Carl Lewis, the Olympic experience is over, and it was hard for him to know how to feel. "You want it to last for ever," he said.