Edwin Moses is regarded as one of the best track athletes in U.S. history, as well as a respected statesman.

	Edwin Moses won the 1976 and 1984 Olympic 400-meter hurdles.

The son of two teachers, Moses took academics more seriously than most youngsters, though he also competed in sports. He played basketball and football when he was younger before giving them up in high school to focus on track and field.

Moses didn't pursue athletic scholarships but instead accepted an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he majored in physics and engineering.

Though there was a track team at Morehouse, there was no track. Using the facilities at public high schools around Atlanta, Moses trained and competed in the 110-meter high hurdles, 400 meters, and 400 relay. Just once before late March 1976 did he enter a 400-hurdles race.

Yet he won the 400 hurdles at the '76 Olympic trials with an American record of 48.30 seconds. That summer, as a 20-year-old, unknown scholar-athlete from a renowned black college, Edwin Moses burst upon the international scene at the Montreal Olympics. Not only did Moses win the gold medal in his first international meet, he set a world record of 47.64 seconds, breaking the old mark by .18 seconds.

For the next decade he would dominate the hurdles, accumulating an amazing string of 122 consecutive victories. Over a period of nearly 10 years, from August 1977 until May 1987, Moses didn't lose a race. He won 107 consecutive finals races.

In 1984, at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he was chosen to recite the Athletes' Oath during opening ceremonies. A few days later, he won his second Olympic gold medal.

Moses was born Aug. 31, 1955, in Dayton, Ohio. In 1994, Moses received his master's degree from Pepperdine University and was elected into the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame. Since 1997 he has been president of the International Amateur Athletic Association.