His winning streak is still one of the most impressive achievements in the history of the sport: between 1975 and 1987 Edwin Moses came first in 122 consecutive races in the 400 meter hurdles. He celebrated two Olympic victories, two world titles and set four world records. But being an athlete was never enough for the American, his view always went beyond that.
After his career as an athlete, the physicist and business economist campaigned for fair sport and various social projects. Among other things, he was a member of the Athletes’ Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Anti-Doping Agency and responsible for training and prevention at the World Anti-Doping Agency , as well as founding member and chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, a foundation that helps disadvantaged children and also honors the world’s best athletes every year. At the Laureus Gala in Paris, Moses, 67, took the time to chat.
Elegant and powerful, Moses won two Olympic gold medals and a bronze medal in the 400 meter hurdles
Quelle: Getty Images
WORLD ON SUNDAY: Mr. Moses, in just over a year, on July 26, 2024, the Olympic Games will begin in Paris. How do you feel about this major event?
Ed Moses: I was right in the middle of it for many years, first as an athlete, then in my later positions, I was an insider. Now I’m looking at it from the outside, like other viewers. I am convinced that Paris is a great city to host the Olympics, as will Los Angeles 2028 and the other major cities that are already set to host. I have fond memories of London 2012, also of Rio 2016, I really enjoyed Sydney 23 years ago now. I think the games are going to be great for Paris as a city and also for the spectators that will be there.
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WORLD ON SUNDAY: The IOC is in favor of Russian and Belarusian athletes starting at the Olympics as neutral athletes and under certain conditions. At the beginning of the year you spoke out clearly against it. Are you staying?
Moses: One thing is certain for me: it is a hideous war. And what is being done to the civilian population is criminal. I’ve been in this world for a while, experienced the Cold War first hand, lived in West Berlin when the city was divided (Moses was married to a German woman, d. R.), was not allowed to take part in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow because of the boycott. I almost had to fight in Vietnam when I was drafted, but the war ended. And I’m very interested in foreign policy, always have been.
“Punish your own athletes” – Bach criticizes the Ukrainian government
President Thomas Bach has defended the IOC’s course on the Russia-Ukraine issue and criticized the Ukrainian government. The government had ordered its athletes to boycott competitions in which athletes from Russia and Belarus take part under neutral status.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: Was there a specific trigger for this?
Moses: Dealing with foreign policy has been one of my hobbies since I started running. I just wanted to know what’s happening in the world, what’s going on in Germany, what’s going on in England and everywhere else. I kept myself informed and also interested in languages. So I really do have personal feelings about the atrocity of this war and how the population is being slaughtered.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: So what do you think: Should Russian athletes still be allowed to compete in Paris in 2024?
Moses: Alone when I consider what has happened since the doping scandal of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games and the McLaren report (Investigation report on a system of state doping in Russia between 2011 and 2016, d.R.) up to the current doping case involving the young figure skater Kamila Valieva, and this abominable war – I can only say: I simply do not understand that Russia is part of the Olympic movement because it is the sport and the Olympic movement betrayed and damaged. And because, as a result, in my opinion, Russia simply did not do enough.
IOC recommends return of Russian athletes to world sport
Russian and Belarusian athletes should no longer be banned from world sport. The International Olympic Committee recommends this to the world associations. However, the IOC executive presupposes various conditions for reintegration.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: Should Russia be admitted, under whatever conditions, a boycott threatened by the Ukrainian government is in the offing. What do you make of it?
Moses: It will be very interesting to see what happens. I’m following that very closely. A difficult subject.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: You mentioned it before: you couldn’t take part in the 1980 Olympics because of the boycott. How was that for you back then?
Moses: It was difficult for the American athletes because we didn’t get any support from our government. Even today, the United States is the only Olympic committee that is not supported by the government, and we do not have a sports minister. Even at my first Olympics in Montreal in 1976, we competed against countries that were supported by their governments, every other country but us. We found that unfair. When profit came, it was hard; we felt that our country let us down. Hardly any of us felt patriotic back then, you hardly saw any athletes with the US flag because we didn’t feel like we had support. It’s very different now. But that’s just background to my answer to your question: I was sad and upset that we weren’t allowed to go to the Olympics. To me, it felt like I wasted four years of my life. Four years in which you didn’t even get support, in which you could have done something else.
Edwin Moses is enjoying the games in Paris next year as a spectator
Quelle: Getty Images for Laureus
WORLD ON SUNDAY: Four years later, in Los Angeles in 1984, you won Olympic gold again. You went your own way from the beginning of your career. This takes courage. Where did you get that from?
Moses: I had no choice. I went to a college with no athletics infrastructure, didn’t take many prisoners if you will. I taught myself how to hurdle. I was always very goal oriented and did my own thing to achieve something. Maybe that’s why I also studied physics, because you can usually work on your own there, nobody helps you, you have to work things out yourself. I like it, it’s my way.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: This also enabled you to be the first track and field athlete to run from hurdle to hurdle in just 13 steps.
Moses: Everyone told me it wasn’t possible. I saw it differently and worked hard every day to make it possible. I liked driving this process of becoming a better athlete.
Perfectionist on the track and exceptional athlete: Moses revolutionized the hurdle race
Quelle: Getty Images
WORLD ON SUNDAY: What role models did you follow back then?
Moses: To my parents, definitely. Of course, everyone in the US liked Muhammad Ali and basketball player Bill Russell, who won 11 championships with the Boston Celtics, but I had my heroes in my family, my role models were academics. My parents both worked as teachers and trainers. You opened up a lot of opportunities for me when I was young. For example, I went on an excursion with them to Paris when I was 14 or 15 years old – that experience alone changed my life.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: What values did they instill in you?
Moses: That you need diligence and perseverance to achieve something, and a good education in order to later be able to take up the profession you want. They conveyed to me the value of education and training in general and the value of social commitment. I learned early on from my family that you should help other people. It’s very important to me, I’ve been doing it in different areas and in different places for a long time now. And that just has to do with the fact that I grew up in a family where something like that was important. That shapes.
WORLD ON SUNDAY: Can you still remember your first little project – as a child?
Moses: At the school where my mother worked, there were programs for preschool children between the ages of three and five. I then helped there when I was ten years old – that was the start of getting involved with others.
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