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August 21, 2008
Posted: 1150 GMT
BEIJING, China - Edwin Moses looks as fit as ever. Wednesday night at a small gathering of past Olympians, I met and briefly spoke with a man who was a hero of mine when I was a teenage runner in North Carolina. He was proud of the U.S. runners in the 400-meter hurdles - Angelo Taylor led a sweep by the United States - but as often happens in a social setting, the topics of conversation changed to work and family.
Edwin Moses: The 400-meter legend traveled to Beijing with his son.
For Moses, the highlight of the trip had been being able to travel to the Olympics with his 12-year-old son, Julian. It was only a few days before they departed for China that Julian was looking at the newly arrived visas and said, "Dad, thank you so much. I can't believe we're going to China." If you're curious, Julian is a "renaissance man", in terms of sport, Edwin said. Julian plays just about everything: football, golf, tennis, scuba diving. But the old man says he will never push his son toward athletics. But interestingly enough, Julian called dad up one day to tell him about running the 800 meters in a meet. "I'll tell you one thing about track, you have to be prepared," Julian said. Mine was a short visit with Edwin. He was there to see some of the other greats from track and field – Tommie Smith, gold medalist at 200 meters in 1968; Harrison Dillard, four-time gold medalist in 1948 and 1952; and Mal Whitfield, who won five medals in '48 and '52. These days Edwin has his hands full, working for the Laureus Academy, giving motivational speeches and building a new Web site. "You need to go to edwinmoses.com, we have a lotta good stuff on there," he said in parting. Posted by: CNN.com's Steve Almasy |
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