Birthday of the man who made the Olympics professional

During the nine years he established a world record that stands to this day of no less than 122 competitions without a loss. Over the years, he broke his own world record twice and won the title of world champion twice. He earned an additional gold medal in the Olympics (except for the 1980 Moscow Olympics where he was absent due to the Western boycott) and three gold medals in the continental cup.

Led the fight against drugs in sports

Even after that loss, he remained at the highest levels with another ten victories in competitions. In the 1987 Athletics World Championships, he won a gold medal before Harris and Schmid. He added a bronze medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics when he broke his own Olympic record but finished only in third place.

Beyond the impressive records he set and the numerous victories, Moses stood out for adopting a vegetarian diet. He was a leader in the fight against drugs and in 1988, he developed a drug testing program for athletes outside of competitions. He utilized his physics knowledge to significantly reduce the use of performance-enhancing drugs, a feat that made headlines during the Olympics that year because of Ben Johnson.

The Olympic slogan: "It's not the victory that matters, but the participation"

His significant contribution to sports extended beyond the fight against drugs or the records he set; it involved a meaningful transformation of the Olympic Games. When the modern Olympics were revived in 1896, they embraced the motto "The most important thing is not to win but to take part," and they prohibited professional athletes from participating.

Moses himself left his job during those years to dedicate himself entirely to sports, setting a goal to make this possible for all athletes. He established a support foundation for athletes that would enable them to earn government grants, private scholarships, or even earn money from endorsements without this preventing them from pursuing their Olympic dreams.

He outlined a reform that would turn the Olympic Games professional, and submitted it in 1981 to the President of the Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, whom we wrote about over a month ago as a former sports official who had connections with dictator Franco.

Thanks to Edwin Moses: the "Dream Team" was born

The reform was accepted that same year and went into effect a number of years later. The Seoul Olympics, in which Moses won a bronze medal, had already opened up to professional athletes. Four years later, professionalism brought us the "Dream Team" of the United States basketball team.

In the year 2000, he was appointed the head of the World Sports Academy. To this day, his personal record ranks sixth of all time, and he is one of only four individuals in history to have won two Olympic gold medals in his field, and one of the five who achieved this in the World Championships. He held the yearly record for over ten years and solidified his position as one of the greatest athletes in history.

He won numerous awards throughout his career, including the World Athlete of the Year in 1980, despite not participating in the Olympics that year. A year later, Moses won the Jesse Owens Award. In 1994, he entered the Track and Field Hall of Fame, and five years later, he was ranked 47th in ESPN's ranking. In 2018, he concluded his award journey by receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award in his hometown, which also honored him with a street named after him.