Athletes Are Made Painstakingly – Not Born
– Edwin Moses
Few athletes have achieved the level of dominance in sports as Edwin Moses. Between 1977 and 1987, Moses amassed an extraordinary record: 107 consecutive victories in finals, 122 wins in official competitions, and 14 world records. His unbeaten streak spanned an astonishing nine years, nine months, and nine days.
Edwin Moses not only ruled the track but also revolutionized his discipline through innovative techniques and his relentless fight for justice off the field.
He approached training differently from most athletes. For the 400m hurdles, he rarely ran the full distance in practice, limiting his efforts to 300m runs. However, he would build his stamina by running up to six miles over hills and golf courses. He even trained with Henry Rono, the Kenyan long-distance runner who set four world records in 1978.
Moses employed techniques that were considered unconventional at the time but are now widely accepted. One such method was Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching, a dynamic stretching technique where a therapist stretches the athlete’s muscles while the athlete resists. He combined this with 20-minute ice baths, which helped reduce pain, inflammation, and swelling from high-intensity running.
Most people believe stretching while cold makes muscles stiff, but Moses found it more effective. According to him, the cold anesthetized the nerves and relaxed the muscles, allowing for a deeper stretch. As the muscles warmed up, lactic acid drained out, and warm blood flowed back in, flushing the area and reducing micro-capillary tears. However, he always ensured these practices were done under expert supervision to avoid injury.
One of Moses’s most significant innovations was his technique of taking 13 steps between hurdles—one fewer than the typical 14. This strategy, coupled with his impressive stride, gave him a critical edge over his competitors. This approach helped him break multiple world records and win two Olympic gold medals: in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. His world record of 47.02 seconds, set in 1983, stood until the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when Kevin Young broke it by just 0.24 seconds.
Moses is one of the most recognized and respected athletes in the world. A four-time Olympian (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988), he won two Olympic gold medals and became a two-time world champion.
He attributes his success to relentless preparation, saying, “I never thought about winning; all I knew was to prepare myself better than everyone else every day. Every race was mine to lose.” For Moses, the track was a vast laboratory, and he approached his training with scientific precision, planning a year’s worth of workouts to peak on race day.
Off the field, Moses was instrumental in reforming international and Olympic eligibility rules. He introduced the Athletes’ Trust Funds program, which allowed athletes to benefit from government or privately supplied stipends, direct payments, and commercial endorsements without jeopardizing their Olympic eligibility. The United States Olympic Committee’s Direct Athlete Assistance Program is also one of his contributions.
When asked how he wanted to be remembered, Moses said, “Hopefully as the guy nobody could beat. Maybe in the years to come, people will understand the things I accomplished and realize—wow, this guy was really something. Nobody’s ever going to do that again.”
Edwin Moses is the epitome of “obsession and excellence”—a true legend whose achievements on and off the track remain unparalleled.
