Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #125 - Edwin Moses

Edwin Moses

USA

Athletics

Overall Ranks

#37 among American Olympians

#36 among Track & Field Athletes

#27 among Male Track & Field Athletes

#22 among American Track & Field Athletes

#17 among American Male Track & Field Athletes

Olympic Results

 1976

400m Hurdles - Gold

1984

400m Hurdles - Gold

1988

400m Hurdles - Bronze

Total

Events - 3

Gold - 2

Bronze - 1

Edwin Corley Moses was born on August 31, 1955 in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who were both educators. He attended Morehouse College to study physics, and also competed on the track team, mostly in the 400 m dash and the 110m hurdles. Before 1976, he had only run the 400m hurdles once, but when he switched his focus to it that year, he quickly became unstoppable.

Just a few months after beginning to run the 400m hurdles, he qualified for the US Olympic team in that event, and his very first international race was at the Montreal Olympics. He had the fastest time in all 3 rounds of the event, and won the final by more than a second, breaking the world record in the process, with a time of 47.63 seconds. He came into the race as an unknown and left a star.

One year later, he lost a race to Harald Schmid of West Germany. That race is only notable because it was the last one that Moses lost for nearly 10 years. He easily qualified for the 1980 Olympics, and would have been a heavy favorite to win another gold medal if the USA hadn't boycotted the games.

By the time the 1984 Olympics rolled around, Moses had won 89 races in a row, and was asked to recite the Olympic Oath at the opening ceremony of the games in Los Angeles. When the racing started, he was a machine as usual, posting the best time in every round and winning the gold medal easily, though 2 runners finished within half a second of him.

When he finally lost a race, in 1987, it was to Danny Harris, who had won the silver medal behind him in 1984. After that, he won his next 10 races, including the US Olympic Trials over Harris, and went to Seoul looking for a third gold. Even though his time was better than it had been during his two gold medal runs, it still wasn't enough that time, as Andre Phillips, another American, set a new Olympic record of 47.19 seconds to take the gold, while Moses finished with the bronze. 

He retired soon after that Olympic defeat, but was still involved in the sports world. He helped develop new drug testing programs that helped reduce cheating in sports, which added another layer to his greatness. He should have been a three-time gold medalist, but even with the two he did win, he is one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.