Edwin Moles

Edwin "Ted" Janey Moles Junior (December 13, 1908 – July 14, 1969) was an American swimmer who competed for Princeton University in both swimming and baseball. He participated in the men's 200 metre breaststroke at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. After graduating Princeton in 1931, and attending Yale Law School, he served as a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of WWII, later reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves. As a primary career, he held the office of a director and Vice-President for the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company. Archer Daniels Midland was originally a food supplier that primarily processed grain, and later became known as a multi-national food processing company based in Chicago.

Edwin Moles Jr., known in print as "Ted" throughout his early life, was born December 13, 1908 in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Stevens Avenue to Edwin Janey Moles Sr. and Elisabeth Kenedy Moles. From a prominent twin cities family, Moles Junior's father, Edwin Moles Sr., was an acting Secretary and a Director for Janney, Semple, Hill and Company, a hardware store and supplier in Minneapolis, and was an officer in the Northwest Bancorporation. Ted, like his father Moles Sr., attended the The Blake School in the twin cities, initially established as a private preparatory school for boys. The school offered strong academics and sought to groom its students to attend elite Eastern Universities. At Blake, a school associated with strong and diverse athletic teams, Ted Moles, as he was known, was a standout swimmer, where he was trained by Coach Paul Bosanko. He missed much of the 1926 season due to an injury to his left foot from an auto accident. Swimming for the Blake School after fully recovering from his injury in January, 1927, Moles broke the Minnesota State Interscholastic record for the 100-yard breast-stroke with a time of 1:15.4. In addition to swimming, he competed in football and hockey at Blake.

From around 1927-1931, Moles, known as "Ted", attended and competed in swimming for Princeton University under Coach Frank Sullivan, but primarily under Howard Stepp who started at Princeton in 1928. Recognized for his achievements, Stepp would become a recipient of the Distinguished Honors Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame in May, 1989.. Moles earned All American honors in swimming at Princeton in 1929. As a Princeton Sophomore, Moles set a new intercollegiate breast-stroke record in the 200-yard event on Saturday, March 2, 1929 in a meet against Dartmouth with a time of 2:37.4. During his collegiate career, he would twice be a national champion in the 200 breaststroke. Princeton's somewhat vigorous training for the era included early season calisthenics, brought to Princeton by Stepp who had competed at Yale with Bob Kiphuth who had instituted early season calisthenics while a coach at Yale. Calisthenics were soon adopted by most Universities as dryland training, which could include focused weight training and would become more carefully designed to strengthen muscles and promote flexibility needed primarily by swimmers. Early season training at Princeton under Stepp also included playing touch football. Later, focusing exclusively on swimming, an average in-season workout might reach around 2500 yards total distance which included a distance swim, followed by pull and kick sets, and some inter-team racing. Moles was Princeton's first swimmer to compete in the Olympics.

By 1930, Moles served as a first-string baseball pitcher for Princeton under Coach Byrd Douglas, a 1916 Princeton graduate. After Princeton, he attended Yale Law School, competing in the 1932 Olympics while still a student at Yale Law.

Representing the New York Athletic Club at the time, Moles qualified for the 1932 Olympics at the mid-July trials at Coney Island Park, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Swimmers complained that the water was too warm for fast times in the longer events. Having tied for first in the semi-final heats, Moles placed first in the 200-meter breaststroke final, with a time of 2:55.4, finishing only slightly ahead of second place Thomas Blankenberg of Los Angeles and third place Basel Francis of the Boston Swimming Association. Renowned Japanese Swimming Coaches K. Abe and Masaji Tabata, Japan's Head Coach at the 1932 Olympics, were present at the U.S. trials. Abe and Tabata were well aware of the Japanese swimmers notably faster times in several events, including the 1500-meter freestyle and Moles's 200-meter freestyle. Distance freestyler and future film star Buster Crabbe was one of the best-known American qualifiers.