Edwin Moses will forever be remembered as one of the giants of track and field. He took up athletics at high school after he was dropped from the basketball team, and as a relatively unknown 20-year-old, he amazed the sporting world at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, winning the gold medal in a world record time of 47.64 seconds.
He ran with a rare mix of speed, grace and stamina and by the time he retired in 1989, Edwin had collected a second gold medal in 1984 and a bronze in Seoul in 1988. He would almost certainly have won a third gold if not for the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
In 1983 he broke the world record for the fourth time, in Koblenz, with a time of 47.02 secs, which stood unchallenged for the next nine years.
In a distinguished career off the track, Edwin’s contribution was just as immense. In 2000 he was elected unanimously by his fellow members to become the inaugural Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
At the end of its first year, inspired by the passion of its Patron, Nelson Mandela, Laureus Sport for Good began to support community-based sports projects around the world. Over the next 17 years, Edwin became the driving force behind the work of Laureus. As global ambassadors for Laureus Sport for Good, Edwin and his fellow Academy Members travelled the world supporting and raising the profile of projects on every continent supported by Laureus.
When Edwin stood down in 2016, Laureus supported more than 100 projects around the world and had improved the lives of countless young people and the communities in which they lived.
Edwin is one of the few athletes to become a truly global ambassador of sport. He was the first athlete to pioneer the acceptance of controlled professionalism in athletics and as a sports administrator, he is best known for his work in the development of policies against the use of performance-enhancing drugs. He was responsible for the development of drug control policies and procedures as Chairman of the Substance, Abuse, Research and Education organisation.
He has been a member of the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission since 2000. He is currently Chairman of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
