Edwin Corley Moses (born August 31, 1955) is an American former hurdler who won gold medals in the 400 m hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and set the world record in the event four times. In addition to his running achievements, Moses was also an innovative reformer in the areas of Olympic eligibility and drug testing. Moses received an MBA from Pepperdine University in 1994.

Competition in 400 m hurdles

Morehouse did not have its own track, so as a student athlete in college Moses used public high school facilities around the city to train and run. At the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles, Moses was selected to recite the Olympic Oath. He went on to win his second Olympic gold medal.

By the time American Danny Harris beat Moses in Madrid on June 4, 1987, Moses had won 122 consecutive races, set the world record twice more, won three World Cup titles, a World Championship gold, as well as his two Olympic gold medals. After the loss to Harris, he went on to win 10 more races in a row, collecting his second world gold in Rome in August of the same year.

Moses finished third in the final 400 m hurdles race of his career at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Eligibility reforms

In 1979 Moses took a leave of absence from his job with General Dynamics to devote himself to running full-time. In the next two years, he was instrumental in reforming international and Olympic eligibility rules. At his urging, an Athletes Trust Fund program was established to allow athletes to benefit from government- or privately supplied stipends, direct payments, and commercial endorsement money without jeopardizing their Olympic eligibility. Moses presented the plan to Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee, and the concept was ratified in 1981. This fund is the basis of many Olympic athlete subsistence, stipend and corporate support programs, including the United States Olympic Committee's Direct Athlete Assistance Programs.

Awards

Despite the U.S.-led boycott that kept him from competing at the summer games in Moscow, Moses was the 1980 Track & Field News Athlete of the Year. A year later, he became the first recipient of USA Track & Field's Jesse Owens Award as outstanding U.S. track and field performer for 1981. He received the AAU's James E. Sullivan Award as outstanding amateur athlete in the United States in 1983. He was being named as ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year in 1984. Moses also shared the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year with American gymnast Mary Lou Retton in 1984, the same year he took the Athlete's Oath for the 1984 Summer Olympics.

In 2018, Moses received the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award.

Drug testing

As a sports administrator, Moses participated in the development of a number of anti-drug policies and helped the track and field community develop one of sports' most stringent random in-competition drug testing systems. In December 1988 he designed and created amateur sports' first random out-of-competition drug testing program. A physicist, Moses has been a leader in creating a structure and protocols that have significantly reduced the use of illegal, performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals in athletics for many decades.

Other achievements

After his retirement from track, Moses competed in a 1990 World Cup bobsled race at Winterberg, Germany. He and long-time US Olympian Brian Shimer won the two-man bronze medal.

In 1994 was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

thumb|right|Moses (fourth from left) stood next to [[Daley Thompson at the 2006 Laureus Day held at the Ham Polo Club, London]]

Since election in 2000, Moses has been chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, which seeks "to promote and increase participation in sport at every level, and also to promote the use of sport as a tool for social change around the world". Several dozen Olympic and world champion athletes, through the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation, work to assist disadvantaged youths around the world.

In 2008, Moses presented the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award to Martin Luther King Jr., biographer Taylor Branch.

In May 2009, the University of Massachusetts Boston awarded Moses an honorary doctorate for his efforts to maintain the integrity of Olympic sports and for his use of sports as a tool for positive social change.

The Edwin Moses Track at Morehouse's B. T. Harvey Stadium is named in his honour, he is the school's only alumnus to win an Olympic gold medal.

Personal life

thumb|270x270px|Edwin Moses in 2024 on the red carpet of the 2024 [[Laureus World Sports Awards.]]

Moses's father was a Tuskegee Airman.

From 1986 through 1988, still in the prime of his running career, he suffered from an undiagnosed ruptured disc, discovered by MRI years later.

In 2017, Moses suffered two traumatic brain injuries within months, but recovered to be able to walk again.

Film

  • "Moses – 13 Steps" Documentary film, 2024 The premiere of the documentary film is scheduled for September 21, 2024 at Morehouse's Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

References

Further reading

  • "Edwin Moses: An Era Unto Himself" (1999). In ESPN SportsCentury. Michael MacCambridge, Editor. New York: Hyperion-ESPN Books. pp. 254–5.
  • Marty Gitlin: The 100 Greatest American Athletes. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, ISBN 9781538110270, pp. 329-329
  • Schwartz, Larry. Moses made winning look easy. ESPN.com.
  • Edwin Moses Biography. Major Taylor Association, Inc.
  • Georgia Sports Hall of Fame