The Streak: Edwin Moses Dominates Hurdles

[00:00:00] On June 4, 1987, Edwin Moses, arguably one of the most influential hurdlers in track

[00:00:08] and field history, finally loses after winning 122 consecutive races spanning almost an

[00:00:16] entire decade.

[00:00:18] Here's the story behind Edwin Moses and his incredible streak in all he did for track

[00:00:23] and field today on Daily Sports History.

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[00:01:08] Welcome to Daily Sports History.

[00:01:10] I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history.

[00:01:14] And today's trivia question to watch out for is what other sport did Edwin Moses

[00:01:20] compete in?

[00:01:21] Now, Moses was born in Dayton, Ohio and was just a, for lack of better terms,

[00:01:29] a nerdy kid.

[00:01:30] He loved science.

[00:01:32] He loved making volcanoes and rockets, collecting fossils and frogs.

[00:01:37] And he excelled in math and physics.

[00:01:40] And he was just a bright kid.

[00:01:43] And it's unusual sometimes to see these bright kids go into athletics as well.

[00:01:48] But it was a way for him to put his knowledge to the test.

[00:01:52] See he would use himself as a guinea pig sometimes and test things on himself.

[00:01:58] He loves physics and the human body anatomy.

[00:02:00] And so it really made it a great way for him to use both things.

[00:02:04] And he actually accepted an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia,

[00:02:09] where he majored in physics and institutional engineering.

[00:02:14] And he was a part of the school's track team, although Morehouse didn't even have

[00:02:19] their own track.

[00:02:20] They would actually go to a high school facility and train in the city.

[00:02:24] And he was essentially kind of his own trainer.

[00:02:27] It was a very small school that didn't have a whole lot of resources for athletics.

[00:02:33] And he actually went there more for the academics.

[00:02:35] But he loved the athletics and he loved using his knowledge that he was learning

[00:02:40] in school on the track.

[00:02:42] And what he noticed was that he had a long stride as he was standing 6'2",

[00:02:48] which at the time was a little bit taller than the average person that was a sprinter

[00:02:52] or a hurdler.

[00:02:53] And that's what Moses really got into.

[00:02:55] He loved hurdles.

[00:02:57] He did the 100 yard and 440 yard dash, were his ones he competed in most.

[00:03:02] And he had a unique experience as he had a long stride of 9'9".

[00:03:08] Now notice I said yards there, as during his career they would transition from using

[00:03:13] yards to meters.

[00:03:15] They would do the 110 meter race as Rand now and they're spaced 9.14 meters apart.

[00:03:24] But what he really excelled at was the 400 meter, which the spacing for those hurdles

[00:03:29] are 35 meters apart.

[00:03:31] And what Edwin noticed is he could take less steps than his competitors because of

[00:03:38] his long stride and long legs, he could take 13 steps in between hurdles instead

[00:03:45] of the average 15 that other competitors were taking, which would give him an advantage.

[00:03:51] What he also did was know how many steps to take as hurdling was still kind of in an infancy

[00:03:58] in this time where we were just kind of learning back in the 60s and 70s.

[00:04:02] We were getting better and better at track and field and understanding how our body

[00:04:06] works and how to get faster and faster.

[00:04:08] And one thing Moses realized was if he ran the same way every time and took the

[00:04:14] same amount of steps in between each hurdle, he wouldn't have to break stride.

[00:04:19] And because he was so long, he really wouldn't have to jump over the hurdles as much as

[00:04:25] other competitors.

[00:04:26] So he focused on maintaining the stride pattern through every race.

[00:04:31] And that's why he consistently won races because he was consistent over and over

[00:04:36] running the same way every single time.

[00:04:39] But before March 1976, he only ran one 400 meter hurdle race.

[00:04:47] But once he began to focus on the event, that's when he saw the progress.

[00:04:51] And in 1976, he actually qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in Montreal and he actually won gold

[00:04:58] while he was there setting the world record at 47.63 seconds.

[00:05:05] And he was actually the only American to win gold in the track and field events that year.

[00:05:11] But a year later, while in Berlin, he would actually lose.

[00:05:16] This was the fourth time he would lose a 400 meter race, but it would be the last time

[00:05:21] for many, many years because he would not lose another race for nine years,

[00:05:27] nine months and nine days.

[00:05:30] Now understand back then Olympic athletes, especially track and field athletes,

[00:05:34] were not paid.

[00:05:36] It was very much amateurized.

[00:05:38] They didn't get a whole lot of sponsorships or anything like that.

[00:05:41] Even sponsorships back then were frowned upon and even could get you disqualified.

[00:05:46] So he had a normal job at General Dynamics where he used his engineering degree.

[00:05:51] In 1979, he actually took a leave of absence from that job to focus on running full time.

[00:05:59] He loved it that much.

[00:06:00] And over the next two years, he actually used this time also to help change the

[00:06:05] eligibility rules for the Olympics, allowing athletes to actually make some kind of money

[00:06:12] and developed the Athletes Trust Fund program, which allowed athletes to benefit from the

[00:06:19] government through privately supplied stipends, general payments, commercial endorsement monies

[00:06:25] without jeopardizing their Olympic abilities.

[00:06:29] And he actually presented this plan to the president of the IOC,

[00:06:34] the International Olympic Committee, and it was ratified in 1981.

[00:06:38] It has become a staple of the Olympics that we now know and love today.

[00:06:43] As you see, some of the Olympic programs in the U.S. have grown exponentially since then.

[00:06:49] But unfortunately, in 1980, he was all set.

[00:06:52] He made the Olympic team, but the U.S. actually boycotted the 1980 games

[00:06:58] due to them being set in Russia and Russia invading.

[00:07:01] If you want to learn all about that, we did a previous episode on that and there'll be a link

[00:07:06] in the show notes to go back and hear all about why we boycotted the 1980 Olympics.

[00:07:13] Although this happened, the U.S. created congressional gold medals that they gave

[00:07:17] athletes that qualified for the Olympics, a total of 461.

[00:07:21] Although that's little compared to the glory of actually winning the Olympic gold in real life.

[00:07:27] But he came back in 1984 for the Olympics that were held in Los Angeles, again winning gold.

[00:07:34] And in 1984, he was named by ABC's Worldwide of Sports Athlete of the Year

[00:07:40] and shared the cover of Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year

[00:07:44] with American gymnast Mary Lou Retton.

[00:07:47] But in three years, on June 4th, 1987, fellow American Danny Harris beat Moses

[00:07:54] while at a track event in Madrid, ending Moses' astonishing record of 122 consecutive races,

[00:08:04] setting the world record more than twice, winning three World Cup titles,

[00:08:09] a World Championship gold, as well as two Olympic gold medals.

[00:08:14] Which would have been three if not for the boycott.

[00:08:17] And after this loss, he would go on to do ten more races and winning all of those,

[00:08:22] including another world gold that same year before eventually retiring.

[00:08:28] After the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, where he finished third in the 100 meters.

[00:08:36] And his best time of 47.2 seconds is still on the all-time list at number six.

[00:08:42] And that same year after retiring, he helped institute

[00:08:46] the first amateur sports random drug test competition.

[00:08:50] But after retiring from track and field, he wasn't done enjoying sports.

[00:08:54] He actually joined up with the US bobsled team that he made connections with

[00:08:58] while competing in the Summer Olympics.

[00:09:00] And he competed in 1990 to 1992.

[00:09:03] He was a part of the US bobsled team and won a bronze medal

[00:09:07] in the two-man World Cup in Germany.

[00:09:10] In 1999, he was ranked 47th on ESPN's 50 Greatest Athletes.

[00:09:16] He's won the Jesse Owens Award for the best track athlete,

[00:09:20] as well as multiple other awards.

[00:09:22] And unfortunately in 2017, Edwin Moses suffered

[00:09:26] two traumatic brain injuries within months of each other.

[00:09:30] But he was able to recover working his way back to walking again.

[00:09:35] And it goes to show you whether you're nerdy or a jock,

[00:09:39] you can still have success in sports.

[00:09:41] He looked at sports in a different way and made contributions

[00:09:44] that still to this day stand, allowing Olympic athletes

[00:09:48] to get some type of payment for the work,

[00:09:51] as well as instituting random drug testing,

[00:09:54] which has become a major part of sports with the rise of steroids.

[00:09:59] His mark is not only left by what he did on the track,

[00:10:03] but what he did off.

[00:10:05] And sometimes I think we need to remember that it's just important

[00:10:08] as what we do in our careers, as well as off of it.

[00:10:12] And we can support whatever we love in multiple different ways.

[00:10:17] And if you would love to support us, the best way to do that

[00:10:20] is to subscribe wherever you're listening at.

[00:10:24] That way you don't miss any time a show comes out,

[00:10:27] which is every day, Monday through Friday.

[00:10:29] And come back tomorrow for more daily sports history.

[00:10:34] And the answer to today's trivia question,

[00:10:37] what other sport did Edwin Moses compete in?

[00:10:40] The answer was bobsledding.