Some of the country’s best athletes sprinted down the newly renovated track at Morehouse College during the first annual Edwin Moses Legends Track and Field Meet.
Last month, the Puma American Track League hosted the event in honor of the Morehouse alum and Olympic gold medal winner.
“It’s fantastic to have a true world-class track meet with world-class athletes and the possibility of running their best times for the world this year,” Moses said.
Track and field athletes from all corners of the globe, united by their love for the sport, competed on the Edwin C. Moses Track at B.T. Harvey Stadium Football Field. Their performances were a preview of the excitement and talent that awaits us at the 2024 Olympics in Paris later this summer, a testament to the global reach and appeal of track and field.
Past Olympians on hand
Notable stars of the sport included 400-meter hurdler and 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, middle distance runners Matthew Boling and Angel Piccirillo, and 400-meter hurdler Khallifah Rosser.
Moses remembers when the school didn’t have a track for him to practice on when he was a student of the all-male HBCU in the 1970s. He had to resort to jumping fences instead of actual hurdles.
The original track was resurfaced for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, but little to no upkeep was given, resulting in disrepair.
In 2014, Moses had a vision for restoring and updating the track, which took almost ten years to complete.
“My vision back in 2014 was to get the track built and to bring events into the stadium,” Moses said.
Vision of Edwin Moses comes to life with some help
With the help of Morehouse and donors like Billie Aaron, wife of baseball legend Hank Aaron, the vision came to life last year.
Edwin Moses won the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, where he set the world record for the event four times. His last record of 47.02 seconds in that event is still the fastest to this day.
“We have somebody who was very instrumental in the sport, especially for me being a hurdler, so meeting him was so big in doing what he did during his time to be able to bring everything full circle makes it big, and I’m glad to be part of it just like I’m sure the rest of the athletes are,” Rosser said.
“At this time of the sport when this has been impossible, a lot of it is due to Edwin’s success and all of the work he’s done at Morehouse,” Piccirillo said.
Historic moment in Track and Field
For McLaughlin-Levrone, the meet is a historic moment for the sport.
She said, “Edwin has done an amazing job in our sport; being a representative of the Black community has been at the top of the sport, and being able to come back now and bring it back here for us to be a part of that, I want to perform to the best of my ability to be able to showcase how far our sport has come and be able to continue that in the future.”
Moses hopes that the track will continue to bring more events to his alma mater and recruit for the Maroon Tigers track team.
“I hope the track is able to put us in a position to begin to recruit top quality guys and maybe come to Morehouse, get an Ivy League school education, and run track too,” Moses said.