Moses is mortal, calls off comeback
Helene Elliott, the world-class Olympics writer for the Los Angeles Times, reported March 21 that Edwin Moses has called off his 400-meter hurdles comeback. The Moses news was buried beneath a longer item on Michelle Kwan. Here’s the Moses segment:
Clearing New Hurdles
At 48, Edwin Moses is as driven as when he won 107 consecutive 400-meter hurdles finals and gold at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. And after stepping up his training last summer with a goal of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic trials, he’s probably as fit as he was at Montreal, Los Angeles and his bronze-medal finale at Seoul in 1988.
“I could probably run the 100-meter hurdles competitively today,” he said.
But his plans to compete in his signature race were derailed by partially torn cartilage in his right knee, an old injury that hadn’t bothered him for years. Unable to put in the 1,200 miles of running he figured he’d need, he ended his comeback. Yet, the attempt was anything but a failure.
“I wasn’t trying to come back and run against Felix Sanchez,” he said, referring to the two-time world champion. “My whole goal was to prove sport can be used in positive ways, for social change.”
His aim was to publicize the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which finances and promotes programs that use sports to tackle social issues such as HIV, landmines, homelessness and the plight of children in war-torn nations. Moses and athletes from various sports visit countries around the world to add a personal touch that often has great impact. He estimated that he racked up 400,000 air miles and visited 26 or 27 countries last year.
The U.S. Sport for Good Foundation raised $1 million at a Beverly Hills gala last week.
“We don’t reinvent the wheel. We don’t build facilities. We find someone already dealing with these problems and we help,” said Moses, who lives in Orange County and Atlanta.
“I think we’ve accomplished a lot, but we want to do more. I think I’ve motivated a lot of athletes on the [Laureus] academy. It’s about motivating people, trying to do things other people think are impossible.”
Me again:
Thanks to Steve Nearman for pointing me to the correct source.
Too bad for Edwin, but as Courtland Gray said: Maybe he didn’t have respect enough for his aging body and its weaknesses. I also hope Edwin has a little more respect for those his age (and older) who are still in the game.
3 Responses
Like many Masters athletes, I am disappointed that Edwin Moses could not make the comeback attempt. However, that makes my prediction back in September that he would not run a race accurate. I would rather have been wrong.
I would have loved to have seen Edwin race and qualify for the Olympics. I grew up with Neamiah, Foster, Reynolds, Johnson, Lewis, Powell and Christie, the greats of Track. So, we will “all” miss an opportunity to re-connect to the old days when track and field was clean, energized and was a significant contributor for broadening our humanities for those precious 2 weeks.
Every sport appears to have a star that sticks out in the record books as setting almost unattainable feats for others to duplicate. Jack Nicklaus and 18 majors. Carl Lewis and his gold medals. Jerry Rice and 200+ Td’s. Wayne Gretzky with approximately as many assists alone than anyone else has in total career points. Track has Moses with his long dominance in hurdles. Although we all looked at Edwin’s goal as being logically unrealistic, he was so dominant in his prime that we would all love to see him with another opportunity believing that he could be competitive. If a comeback for Moses ever does happen, I will not be betting against him for the same reason I didn’t bet against Jack Nicklaus in the ’86 Masters.
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