Edwin C. Moses

EARLY YEARS, EDUCATION, AND TRACK AND FIELD ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Dr. Edwin C. Moses, born on August 31st, 1955, in Dayton, Ohio, is a distinguished Olympic Champion and world record holder, sports administrator, diplomat, businessman, and writer. He is one of the most respected, recognized and esteemed international athletes of our time. Moses has resolutely served and promoted the Olympic movement and fostered the development of “drug-free” sports and amateur athletes’ rights at all levels.

Moses began his athletic career in age group competitions and later in high school in the 180 yard low hurdles and 440-yard dash. Guided by his parents’ influence on him as educators, he accepted a dual-degree academic scholarship in Physics and Engineering from Morehouse College rather than an athletic scholarship. Moses trained for the 1976 Olympic trials using the public high school facilities around Atlanta as Morehouse College had no track facilities during this time. He subsequently won the Olympic Trials in the 400-meter hurdles with an American record of 48.30 seconds, making his first Olympic team. At the summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, Moses became the Olympic Champion, bettering the Olympic and World Records with a time of 47.63 seconds. In 1977 he broke his second World Record in his second year running the event at the AAU National Championships at UCLA with a time of 47.45 seconds. Moses continued to perform brilliantly in Track and Field, slowed only by the United States boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games held in Moscow, thereby denying Moses a second golden opportunity. However, he demonstrated his pre-Olympic form in Milan, Italy, when he smashed his World Record of 1977 with a new record time of 47.13 seconds. Three years later, he lowered the mark once again on his 29th birthday in Koblenz, West Germany, with his time of 47.02. In 1983, he won his first World title at the first World Championships at Helsinki, Finland. One of the accolade moments of his track and field career came one year later at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, when he was chosen to recite the Athletes’ Oath during opening ceremonies. A few days later, he reaffirmed his unparalleled sportsmanship by winning his second Olympic Gold Medal. His world record remained unbroken until 1992. For an entire decade; nine years, nine months, and nine days, from August 1977 until June 4th, 1987, Moses collected an unprecedented 122 straight victories, 107 of these were finals. This winning streak has remained unbeaten and stands in the Guinness Book of Records to this date.

GRADUATION FROM COLLEGE; CONTINUING EDUCATION - INITIATIVES AND IMPROVING TRAINING CONDITIONS AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN ATHLETES

Moses graduated from Morehouse College and thereafter worked as an Associate Test Engineer for General Dynamics, taking a leave of absence from his engineering position in 1979 to pursue athletics full-time. On the passing of the U.S. Amateur Sports Act by Congress in 1978, Moses set out to improve training conditions and financial support mechanisms for American athletes. At the time, Soviet, East German, and other Eastern block athletes were heavily financed by their governments. Determined to find a method through which U.S. athletes could generate financial support to offset training expenses and earn some income, Moses persuaded The Athletics Congress (TAC and presently USA Track and Field) to advocate for the liberalization of the international and Olympic eligibility rules by adopting a revolutionary concept to provide revenue to United States athletes through an Athletes Trust Fund program. Moses was thereafter asked by The Athletics Congress to provide a presentation to Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee. The Trust Fund would enable athletes to create accounts administered by the bodies of their respective sports. Government or privately supplied stipends, direct payments, and monies derived from commercial endorsements could be deposited and periodically drawn from by an athlete for training and other expenses without jeopardizing their Olympic eligibility. Based upon Moses’ presentation, President Samaranch and the IOC commission then ratified the concept in late 1981. The Trust Fund is currently the basis for many Olympic athlete subsistence, stipend, and corporate support programs, including the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s well-funded Direct Athlete Assistance Programs.

In the spring of 1994, Moses received a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. He also continued his education by attending the University of Oxford (U.K.) in 2000 to study Global Enterprise Management, Organizations, and Political Economy.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND ANTI-DOPING ADVOCACY AND INITIATIVES

As an accomplished physicist, Moses masterfully utilized his knowledge of the applied sciences to perfect his athletic performance’s technical aspects in his event, the 400-meter hurdles, and out-of-competition testing systems for performance-enhancing drugs in sports. As a sports administrator, Moses is best known for his skillful and courageous directives in developing policies against performance-enhancing drugs. Recognizing the disastrous effects that rampant use of these drugs by athletes could cast upon the sport of Track and Field, Moses feared that continued, unchecked steroid abuse would eventually dismantle the fabric of International sports. Between 1983 and 1989, as an athlete member of The Athletics Congress, Moses continually monitored the progress and the results of the in-competition random testing program. Despite being immersed in both national and international committee work by 1986, he found time to prepare himself for a bronze medal performance at the 1988 Seoul, Korea Olympic Games.

In December 1989, he was convinced that a small minority of athletes had developed sophisticated methods to escape standard in-competition testing procedures, fortified with the support of athletes, physicians, and expert scientists worldwide, created and designed amateur sport’s first random out-of-competition drug testing program. He decided to make the first major public challenge in the assault against performance-enhancing drugs in sports, together with a few other dedicatedly clean and pure Track and Field athletes, who became pioneers in the development, administration, and implementation of the sport’s world’s most stringent random in-competition drug testing systems. This knowledge also enabled him to create, implement, and administer the world’s most stringent random in-competition drug testing systems. With the assistance of some of the most esteemed legal scholars in the United States, and with overwhelming support from TAC, Moses and his colleagues successfully legislated and implemented testing under the unprecedented program, the TAC/USA--IN and OUT of Competition Testing Program. He further successfully nurtured the new testing program through its formative period (1987-1991), which continues to operate successfully to date in the form of a new type of independent organizational vehicle, WADA (World Anti-doping Association) and USADA (United States Anti-doping Agency). Many believe the out-of-competition testing program’s deterrent effect has significantly contributed to a decrease in steroids and other performance-enhancing methods in sports.

In an administrative capacity, Moses has also worked with the Special Olympics, Montana State Games, Goodwill Games, and the USOC’S own Olympic Festival. Additionally, he has served on the USOC with a delegation that lobbied U.S. Congressmen and Senators to support efforts to include a “tax check-off” on the Federal Income Tax form and issues relating to the Unrelated Business Income Tax provisions in current legislation. The tax check-off bill allowed taxpayers to elect to donate $1.00 automatically to the US Olympic Committee by simply checking off a box on the first page of the IRS 1040 tax form.

Selected as an athlete representative, Moses accompanied the IOC Commission on Apartheid and Olympism, which traveled to Johannesburg and Cape Town before the return of South Africa to the Olympic Family in 1990/1991 under the leadership of the Honourable Judge Keba Mbaye of Senegal and Dr. Francois Carrard, Director General of the IOC.

He was also a founding partner in the Platinum Group, a management partnership representing world-class athletes in their business endeavors. He served as a member of the President’s Circle, an advisory group, which advises the President of the National Academy of Sciences on scientific, economic, and environmental policy. In May of 1993, he was named by the White House to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships as a commissioner and selector of applicants for the White House Fellowship Program. He also served as a member of the National Criminal Justice Commission and was elected by the Athletes’ Advisory Council to the Executive Committee of the USOC. He received the ultimate honor bestowed by his sport when he was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame on December 3rd, 1994.

Moses formerly worked as a financial consultant with The Robinson-Humphrey Company, Inc., an investment banking firm and subsidiary of Smith Barney Inc., which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, site of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. He served a stint as Vice Chairman of the United States Sports Foundation next to Chairman George Steinbrenner, the investment arm of the U.S. Olympic Committee, which strategically managed more than $250 million portfolios in legacy assets earned from the profits from the 1984 Olympic Games.

THE LAUREUS FOUNDATION INAUGURAL CHAIRMAN

In 2000, Moses was elected by his fellow academy members to become the inaugural Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy (London), which he held for 16 years and remains as global chair of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.

The Laureus World Sports Academy is a unique association of 46 of the greatest living sporting legends from sports as diverse as football, cricket, tennis, athletics, rugby, skateboarding, and motor racing. All the members of the Academy share a belief in the power of sport to break down barriers, bring people together, and improve the lives of young people around the world.

During the February 2008 Laureus World Sports Awards hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, Russia, Moses, Boris Becker (tennis), Sean Fitzpatrick (Rugby), Steve Waugh (Cricket), and Marcel Desailly (Football) participated in a televised debate on CNN television relating to drugs and racism in sport, the question of Darfur, and its relation to the Bejing Olympics in 2008. In May 2008, as the Honorary Chairman of the Major Taylor Association, Edwin and its members celebrated the more than 100-year-old legacy of Seven-time World Champion cyclist Marshall W.’ Major’ Taylor in Wooster, Massachusetts. Taylor, an African-American competing in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was memorialized with perhaps the most beautiful and elegant statue ever made in honor of a sports legend in America.

Moses is also a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given to American citizens by the U.S. Congress, for his and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Teams’ sacrifice upon being forced to boycott the Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia.

As Chairman Emeritus of the Board of USADA, Edwin has remained willing to protect the integrity of sports by ensuring and promoting a clean and fair playing field for all athletes. In January 2014, he was selected as Chairman of WADA’s Education Committee (World Anti-doping Agency). Having observed no standardization, criteria, or governing protocols for providing or managing anti-doping educational services for athletes worldwide under his leadership, his simple ideas and suggestions were to develop within WADA the “ISE” (International Standard for Education), an internationally recognized governance and best practices standard.

On December 4th 2020, the Rodchenkv Anti-doping Act (H.R. 835) was signed by the President giving US officials the power to prosecute individuals for doping schemes at international sports competitions involving American Athletes. The act emanated from the actions that were fully investigated by WADA involving the Russian Olympic committee and their national anti-doping laboratory RUSADA.

OTHER AWARDS, ENDEAVORS AND RECOGNITION

On May 29th , 2009, Chancellor J. Keith Motley and the Board of Trustees of the University of Massachusetts Boston conferred upon Edwin the distinguished degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa in recognition of his outstanding lifelong contribution to ensuring the integrity of amateur sports on the world stage, his leadership of the Laureus World Sports Academy, and for using sports as a tool for social change.

In January 2011, The International Fair Play Committee and the International Sports Journalists Association (AIPS) invited Jacque Rogge, President of the IOC, to present Edwin with “The World Fair Play award.”

In November 2011, The UNESCO Director-General and his Special Ambassador honored Dr. Moses alongside former President of the USSR Dr. Mikhail Gorbachev with its prestigious ‘Pyramide con Marni’ award for his social work and activities around the world for children in need.

In November 2012, The IAAF, the international track and field governing body, inducted Edwin into the International Track and Field Hall of fame. This honor is a testament to his status as one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time.

Dr. Moses was the recipient of the United States Olympic Endowment’s William E. Simon Award in December 2013 based on his contributions to advance the Olympic Movement while leaving an enduring legacy to the ideals of Olympism and the Olympic Spirit.

Edwin’s current endeavors include his appointment to the advisory board of Equitie Holdings Corporation, a Toronto based mobile investment platform for alternate assets that empower fans. He is also consulting on a documentary film about his life being produced by a German production company. Additionally, he is preparing to launch a podcast based on his Icon 2 Icon, Excellence Conversations platform.

Edwin has undertaken several occupations, hobbies, sports, and academic interests as an enlightened humanist. In addition to his well-documented career in track and field, he was a member of the U.S. Bobsled team, winning a bronze medal in a 2-man World Cup event in Koenigsee, Germany, and later that year placed 7th in the 1991 World Bobsled Championships in the 4-man event as a brakeman. He is also an Advanced Scuba diver and an FAA certified private pilot with a Commercial certificate and instrument rating. He has been an aviator for nearly 40 years, following his father’s footsteps, a WWII veteran, and a member of the Tuskegee Airmen.