Word: hurdler
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...preparations for the Games for more than a year, including our October 1983 cover story on how the Olympics were being financed. "I confess," says Holmes, "I am a certified Olympic nut. I knew it when I walked into the Coliseum for the opening ceremonies. I was with Hurdler Edwin Moses, whose journey was interrupted every few steps by people wanting to take his picture-not only spectators but other athletes, all wanting to preserve the special moment...
Bill and Evelyn Lewis met at Alabama's Tuskegee Institute: he was a sprinter, she a hurdler, both of them long jumpers. Evelyn, especially, loved floating in free flight. With slim legs tucked tightly under her in the fashion of the day, she sailed over 19 ft. at college and was bound for the Helsinki Games in 1952 until a hurdle injury interfered. Evelyn had to stop competing at 20, and all these years later, some incomplete feelings linger. There are no spectators in the Lewis family, but the varied athletic directions of the children suggest a reasonable tolerance...
Part of the problem was that his event had no glamorous tradition, no particular identity. Moses was actually a failed high hurdler and quarter-miler who turned to the 400-meter hurdles in 1975 looking for an easier chance to reach the Olympics...
...into the most predictable event in track, until that became its own kind of drama. Moses won ten races in a row, then 20. "When I got to about 30 or 35, I remember saying to myself, 'Well, 41 races has been the most ever won by a hurdler.' " Since Aug. 26, 1977, Moses has not lost in 102 races, posting 18 of the best 20 times ever...
...usual, devastation was well represented at the trials. "We're leaving home Andre Phillips," Moses said with a sigh, referring to the world's second-ranked 400 hurdler, who happened to have a head cold and finished fourth. After the race, Phillips chucked his shoes into the infield in disgust. He had been doing well. "He's running 48 seconds," Moses said. "It's tough." American Heptathlon Record Holder Jane Frederick inexplicably failed at the high jump and was out. The 800 meters had two unexpected casualties: Don Paige and James Robinson. There is a quadrennial...