Top 40 Edwin Moses Quotes

I don’t do Facebook, Twitter, I don’t do any of the social media.

I didn’t get an athletics scholarship at a major school.

When I first started running there were no computers. There was no such thing as a laptop.

I always had to keep improving my skills in order to remain competitive and keep winning.

I found ways to maintain my performance through working with professionals and doing things that other people weren’t doing. Later in my career, I had a great physical therapist who kept me out on the track. We were doing innovative things like ice baths back in the early ’80s when everyone else thought it was crazy.

My father was an all-American football player.

I always got my work done before playing.

I was always a mean and lean athlete – not tall – not large.

I was always more of an academic than a jock.

I think I was in the most historical and golden era of track and field.

Nobody can walk on a track and beat me unless they have an extraordinary day and I have a bad day, which I keep from happening.

I always saw hurdles as a form of art, because it’s very individual. One technique that may produce a world record for one guy could be useless for another guy.

I wanted to go to medical school. But, I never got a college scholarship.

In any competitive environment, whether you’re in sales or marketing or whatever it is, you have to know your competition, understand who they are, do intelligent analysis on them and then you have to know yourself – who you are and what you’re capable of doing.

Some days you really don’t feel like racing and you have a great performance, some days you feel great and you have a mediocre performance.

Stretching was a major part of my preparation.

I like to talk to people on the phone. I don’t like to do critical stuff by text message.

My career proves that you can be on top for a long period of time by doing things that come naturally.

I don’t think I was a perfect hurdler, but I guess I did win all the time.

Chicago is a fantastic city, and I can easily see the Olympics setting themselves right here in Chicago.

Lots of people let it go by and never accomplish what they want. I just wanted to see what I could do.

My father was also a principal of a school and mother was a curriculum advisor. Both were educators.

I was black, studying physics and engineering. I was from a small school nobody ever heard of.

I used to have tears in my eyes on the way to practice because I was so focused. For me, track and field was serious business. I didn’t have any friends. I was very isolated and very focused.

I used biomechanics to save time when I was competing.

My concentration level blocks out everything. Concentration is why some athletes are better than others. You develop that concentration in training and concentrate in a meet.

I went to Moorehouse College. There was no track and field there.

One of the things I’m most proud of is I went through my entire career drug-free.

It doesn’t matter who you are. It can happen to anybody. We have Kenyan, Dominican Republic and even Scandinavian Olympic gold medalists. All you need is will power.

Black athletes are always under more scrutiny.

In particular, I studied German and Russian biomechanics.

In digital world, sport provides opportunity to bring people together.

My eyes have been sensitive to light since the fifth grade. Without glasses I can’t see the next hurdle.

Both parents supported my becoming a world class athlete.

In 1974 or 1975, if someone had told me I was going to be an Olympic champion, I would not have believed it. Even in 1976, I’d not have believed it.

I used to be seriously incognito – without wanting to be. The effect of the magazines, television, billboards – they’ve changed my whole life in terms of having to deal with being a, quote, star.

I’m an engineer. I studied physics and engineering. In fact, in 1978 I started working as an aerospace engineer with General Dynamics. I used to test cruise missiles, space systems, I worked on the first generation of cruise missile.

I never considered myself as a favourite in any hurdles event. I never took anything for granted.

I never struggled with injury problems because of my preparation – in particular my stretching.

The joint lubrication was not what it was when I was competing, and I decided that not having arthritis or rheumatism for the rest of my life was a lot more important to me than returning to the track.