Los Angeles, Apr 30: Nine-time Olympic gold medal winner Carl Lewis was charged with a misdemeanor drunken driving offense here by the city attorney's office. The 41-year-old athletics legend was arrested April 21 by the California highway patrol after crashing his new Maserati into a sound-barrier wall off a major freeway.

Lewis is scheduled to be arraigned July 2. Police said they "observed symptoms of alcohol intoxication" in Lewis, who is one of only three Olympians to win gold in the same event four times, having done so in the long jump in the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics.

Lewis also posted a blood-alcohol level above 0.08 per cent - the state's legal limit, the police said. The arrest came after a week of bad publicity for Lewis. He was among athletes who were targeted by allegations they were allowed to compete at the Olympics despite failing doping tests.

Lewis later shrugged of the controversy, telling the orange county register that the US Olympic committee routine let athletes off with a warning, something USOC officials deny. Bureau Report