Moses turns 48 on Sunday. Here's a story that appeared in the Chicago Tribune this
week.
Moses hurdles different challenge
By Michael Hirsley
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 27, 2003
Edwin Moses used to take hurdles 400 meters at a
time. These days he approaches them thousands of
miles at a time, about 250,000 over the past two
years by his own count.
As a former world-class hurdler whose unbeaten streak of 122
stretched over
nearly a decade, including Olympic gold medals in 1976 and 1984,
Moses
remains an athlete known all over the world.
He has parlayed that into a leadership role with the Laureus Sport
for Good
Foundation, which tries to use sports as a catalyst for
humanitarian efforts.
As he prepares to celebrate his 48th birthday Sunday, Moses is
trying to steer
education and resources to needy destinations worldwide. Last week
he flew from
New York to Paris, ending a two-month break from a travel schedule
that took
him to 30 countries in two years.
Although he often travels alone, Moses is part of a team of former
top athletes
and significant financial backers. He is chairman of the World
Sports Academy,
comprising more than three dozen of the world's best-known retired
athletes such
as Boris Becker, Nadia Comaneci, Emerson Fittipaldi, Dan Marino,
Martina
Navratilova and Mark Spitz.
Why athletes?
"We bring name recognition from sports, and sports bring so many
possibilities
for pulling diverse people together to solve common problems,"
Moses said.
After the athletes' team recommends potential projects, the
foundation follows up
with a million-dollar annual commitment, endowed by
Daimler-Chrysler and
Richemont, whose holdings include Cartier.
"We're not there to teach sports, although I've demonstrated
hurdling at times,"
Moses said. "We use sports as a hook for social change."
Since the foundation was created four years ago, 21 projects have
been funded,
including:
- A 10 p.m.-2 a.m. basketball league in Richmond, Va., is also a
drug- and
crime-intervention program.
- A soccer program in Nairobi, Kenya, also teaches participants
about AIDS and
family planning as well as addressing other health and
environmental issues.
- A partnership with Special Olympics helps to create teams in the
Czech
Republic, Slovakia and China. They unite individuals with and
without mental
handicaps for training and friendly competition.
- Sports projects in Cape Town, South Africa, and in New York City
seek to
combat homelessness among youths. In Sierra Leone, the focus is on
children
who were abducted into sex slavery or military service.
- A new project in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has expanded from martial
arts and soccer
to include instructions in computers, music and the arts. It
established a
musicians' and artists' studio in a converted warehouse.
Moses admits he sometimes believes he and fellow Laureus
ambassadors are
swimming upstream against the bad publicity of athletes' problems
ranging from
greedy behavior to criminal behavior to abusive behavior with
performance-enhancing or social drugs.
"Bad news travels faster and louder than good news," he said.
The foundation he heads has tried to pump up the volume by staging
an annual
awards ceremony honoring exceptional athletes.
Winners have been as well-known to Americans as golfer Tiger Woods,
as
little-known as the French soccer team and Olympic track star Cathy
Freeman of
Australia, and as obscure as equator circumnavigator Mike Horn of
South Africa.
The Laureus program draws its name from a universal sports symbol
of triumph,
the laurel wreath. The Latin word "Laureus" can be translated to
mean both the
wreath and its triumphant recipient.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
Dan Kaplan wrote:
> What is he now, 45 or 50? Maybe coming back in the Masters ranks...
>
> Dan
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