Edwin Corley Moses (born August 31, 1955) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

former

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete who won

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

s in the

400 m hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

at the

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

and 1984 Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and set the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

in the event four times. In addition to his running, Moses was also an innovative reformer in the areas of Olympic eligibility and

drug test A drug test is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites. Major applications of ...

ing. In 2000, he was elected the first Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, an international service organization of world-class athletes.

Competition in 400m hurdles

Moses was born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County, Ohio, Greene County. The 2020 United S ...

. Having accepted an academic

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

, he majored in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

and

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...

, while competing for the school track team. Morehouse did not have its own track, so he used public high school facilities around the city to train and run. Initially, Moses competed mostly in the 120-yard hurdles and

440-yard dash The 440-yard dash, or quarter-mile race, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. In many countries, athletes compete in the 440 yard dash (402.336 m) – which corresponds to a quarter mile. Many athletic tracks are 440 yard ...

. Before March 1976, he ran only one 400 m hurdles race, but once he began focusing on the event he made remarkable progress. With his height of 6'2", Moses' trademark technique was to take a consistent 13 steps between each of the hurdles, pulling away in the second half of the race as his rivals often took 15 strides or changed their stride pattern. That year, he qualified for the U.S. team for the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. In his first international meet, Moses won the gold medal ahead of teammate Mike Shine while setting a world record of 47.63 seconds in the process. After breaking his own world record the following year at the Drake Stadium with a time of 47.45 seconds, Moses lost to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

Harald Schmid Harald Schmid (; born 29 September 1957) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the sprints and hurdles. He was one of the best 400 metres hurdles runners in the world during his career. Career Schmid won bronze with the We ...

on August 26, 1977 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

; this was his fourth defeat in the 400 m hurdles. Beginning the next week, Moses beat Schmid by in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

, and he did not lose another race for nine years, nine months and nine days. Moses qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the

1980 Summer Olympics boycott The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott was one part of a number of actions initiated by the United States to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and its allies later ...

. He did however receive one of 461

Congressional Gold Medal The Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress. It is Congress's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions by individuals or institutions. The congressional pract ...

s created for the athletes. At the 1984 Olympics held in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, Moses was selected to recite the

Olympic Oath The Olympic Oath (distinct from the Olympic creed) is a solemn promise made by one athlete, judge or official, and one coach at the Opening Ceremony of each Olympic Games. Each oath taker is from the host nation and takes the oath on behalf of all ...

, but forgot the text during his presentation.He's Hurdled into History
''New York Times'', Dave Anderson, Aug. 6, 1984. He went on to win his second Olympic gold medal. By the time American

Danny Harris Danny Lee Harris (born September 7, 1965) is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400-meter hurdles (400 mH), in which he won silver medals at the 1984 Olympics and the 1987 World Championships. Hurdling car ...

beat Moses in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

on June 4, 1987, Moses had won 122 consecutive races, set the world record two more times, 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 400m hurdles race of his career at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

Eligibility reforms

In 1979 Moses took a leave of absence from his job with

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

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 Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquess of Samaranch (Catalan: ''Joan Antoni Samaranch i Torelló'', ; 17 July 1920 – 21 April 2010) was a Spanish sports administrator under the Franco regime (1973–1977) who served as the seventh P ...

, President of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

, 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 The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

'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 The ''Track & Field News'' Athlete of the Year award is given to track and field athletes by ''Track & Field News'' magazine, an American sports magazine. A panel of international track and field experts organized by the magazine selects the winn ...

. A year later, he became the first recipient of

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 a ...

Jesse Owens Award The Jesse Owens Award (also the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award for the female version of the award) is an annual track and field award that is the highest accolade given out by USA Track & Field (USATF). As the country's highest award for the sport, ...

as outstanding U.S. track and field performer for 1981. He received the AAU's

James E. Sullivan Award The AAU James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), is awarded annually in April to "the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States". Representatives from the AAU created the AAU Sullivan Award with the int ...

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 ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

Sportsman of the Year Since its inception in 1954, ''Sports Illustrated'' has annually presented the Sportsman of the Year award to "the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement." Both Americans and non-Amer ...

with American

gymnast Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...

Mary Lou Retton Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals. Her performanc ...

in 1984, the same year he took the Athlete's Oath for the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

. In 1984 his hometown of Dayton renamed Miami Boulevard West and Sunrise Avenue "Edwin C. Moses Boulevard". In 1999, Moses ranked #47 on ''

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's SportCentury 50 Greatest Athletes''.

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. For many decades, Moses has been a leader in creating a structure and protocols that have significantly reduced the use of illegal, performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals in athletics.

Other achievements

After his retirement from track, Moses competed in a 1990

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Fede ...

race at

Winterberg Winterberg ( Westphalian: ''Winnenmerg'') is a town in the Hochsauerland district of North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany and a major winter sport resort of the Wintersport Arena Sauerland. Geography Winterberg is located in the middle o ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. He and long-time US Olympian

Brian Shimer Brian Shimer (born April 20, 1962) is an American bobsledder who competed from 1985 to 2002. Competing in five Winter Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the four-man event at Salt Lake City in 2002. Shimer also won three bronze medals at the F ...

won the two-man

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

. In 1994 Moses received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...

and was inducted into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, ...

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 The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...

's Lifetime Achievement Award to

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, biographer Taylor Branch. In May 2009, the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

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.

Personal life

Moses's father was a

Tuskegee Airman The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the United States Arm ...

. Moses is a vegetarian, humanitarian and advocate for peace. From 1986 through 1988, still in the prime of his running career, he suffered from an undiagnosed ruptured disc, discovered by MRI years later. Moses has one son, Julian, a volleyball player, born on August 29, 1995, in southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He married Myrella Bordt in 1982; they divorced in 1992. He married Michelle Moses in February 2007; she filed for divorce in 2016.U.S. OLYMPIC LEGEND EDWIN MOSES WIFE FILES FOR DIVORCE
'' TMZ'', September 4, 2016. Retrieved July 30, 2021. In 2017, Moses suffered two traumatic brain injuries within months, but recovered to be able to walk again.Edwin Moses remarkably recovers from traumatic brain injurie
''

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

'' (AP), December 4, 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2021.

References

External links

* * * * * * Schwartz, Larry
Moses made winning look easy
''ESPN.com''.

''Major Taylor Association, Inc.''
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moses, Edwin 1955 births Living people American male hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics James E. Sullivan Award recipients Morehouse College alumni African-American male track and field athletes Sportspeople from Dayton, Ohio World record setters in athletics (track and field) Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field World Athletics Championships medalists Track and field athletes from Ohio Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Congressional Gold Medal recipients Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Laureus World Sports Awards winners Oath takers at the Olympic Games Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners World Athletics Championships winners Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople