LaureusTV interviews Edwin Moses, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy

Q - The 100 metres in Beijing, with Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, promises to be one of the great events to watch?

A - I think it will be when you have three individuals who are running those sorts of times. In my opinion, one reason they're running these sorts of times is that they've changed the surfaces of the track to make it easier to run faster. I think it has to do with the fact that times in the sprints are faster overall. It doesn't make much sense that so many talented people are running times, routinely, that other people - some of the greatest in track and field - never ran in their time. I am sure that the track has something to do with it. In fact, those tracks would have been illegal in my time. They would have been banned because they are so hard. They've changed the game a little bit.

I wish I could have run on tracks like that. It changes the basis of the sport. Time is the only thing that you can measure in track and field. When you manipulate the surfaces you distort the times, not only today but also times in the past. You lose the relevance of a 19.83 for Tommie Smith on practically a dirt track in 1968 - it puts that completely out of perspective.

Q - Who do you prefer for the 100 metres?

A - We'll have to see with injuries….it's a tough call. Tyson Gay is just on his way back from recovery and the other guys are in their peak form.

Q - 110 metres hurdler Liu Xiang is expected to be the icon of the Beijing Games. Will he be another Cathy Freeman and win a gold medal in front of a home crowd?

A - Well, I think he's injured. I've seen him not race twice. A false start. I think he's injured, personally. That's generally what we do, if we have an injury and don't want anybody to know about it. I think the pressure on him is going to be so great. I think he must be burned out to a certain extent. I think the odds are against him this time. There will be too much pressure - we've seen the beginnings of it this year. The rest of the guys are going to be ready, especially the American hurdlers - David Oliver and Terence Trammell - and the guy from Cuba - Dayron Robles. They're going to be ready and want to take him out at home. It would be the coup of a career. As much as he's been winning, to beat him in China is going to be everyone's goal.

Q - Jeremy Wariner has been described as the new Michael Johnson. How do you think he's going to run in the 400 metres?

A - Well, I'm sure he'll make it to the final…..barring any injury. But in track and field you're only as good as your last race and he's lost a couple of races this year. I think LaShawn Merritt is going to be ready, he seems to be ready. And, once again, it's pressure. Going in as the favourite is not a good place to be psychologically for most athletes.

Q - On the women's side, Yelena Isinbayeva seems to be the most dominant individual in track and field, male or female?

A - I think it's going to be a tough year for her. We've got an American girl - Jennifer Stuczynski - who's jumping at her record a few weeks ago and who has peaked at just the right time. As I've said, in an Olympic year, it doesn't really matter who you are or what your reputation is, there are people out there who are in the hunt. So, I believe Yelena will have some tough competition for sure. She may or may not win, but I think things are changing - it has been very stable, with Wariner on top, Yelena on top, about four or five distance runners, particularly the women distance runners, it's all been very stable. In an Olympic year, it doesn't matter. Running those heats, in a competition, if someone steps on your leg, and trips you, it's all over.

Q - Do you anticipate the climatic conditions will make it an unusual Olympic Games?

A - It's going to be super hot and humid. I don't know if there's going to be rain, because apparently they're seeding the clouds. There's going to be smog. I just don't think they can get rid of the smog. I don't think you can just stop factory production and get the smog to go away. It's going to be tough conditions for everyone. The Olympics have been held in those conditions before - at least the hot and the humid, maybe not the smog before.

Q - What's you impression of the Olympic games today?

A - I think it's definitely a great event. The Chinese have put a tremendous amount of effort and money into it. When I first started in 1976, the budget in Montreal was maybe hundreds of millions, and now it's into the billions. I was reading the Chinese have spent over $40 billion on transport, infrastructure and stadiums, training people and all the things they had to do to get ready. They expect the show to be one of the most exotic and highly interesting ceremonies and events ever. When you spend that sort of money you can make almost anything happen. But when you're a competitor, when you're there, you don't see it all. You don't pay attention to anything, you pay attention to your immediate surroundings and your event. As a competitor, it really doesn't make that much difference, you see the track, the football pitch or the wrestling ring. You don't really see the rest of it.

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Q - In the latest Laureus Newsletter, you make a plea for sport to take a tougher stance on performance enhancing drugs?

A - I think that the drugs in sport issue is the issue that cuts through the credibility of sport, not only from the administrative point of view; from the organisational point of view, but also from the competitive point of view. It does more damage than anything else. It's been going on for quite a while, and I've been disgusted for a few years because - although I'm not directly involved in the doping war now - I read and see the same information that the average person in the street does. People are quite frustrated with the major sports in the world because despite all the talk, they feel nothing is being done about it.

I think that doping and cheating in general, un-sportsmanlike conduct from athletes, trainers, coaches or administrators, is one of the most devastating things that's happened in sport in the last five or so years, and going back further. My personal belief is that we've had enough. The fans have certainly dealt with enough and it's time for the sporting bodies to take a very hard stand.

Q - Several big name athletes have been caught recently. Is sport beginning to sort this out?

A - Well, I do agree; that they're beginning to sort this out. At the same time you have to give credit to Olympic sports, because the doping control programmes are in place, they are harsh. We're not dealing with players' unions or professional teams, because they'd keep players from being tested. It is what it is and it's very, very effective. Sometimes I think that amateur sports aren't given the credit for having the toughest drug programmes in the world. Especially when you compare them to some of the more professional sports, when you don't read these stories in the papers. In general, I think we do a good job, but a better job can be done.

Q - Who do you think is winning the battle at the moment, the drug cheats or the testers?

A - I think an analogy would be that the tide has stopped rising for the time being. I'm not going to say that the war is being won on doping, because there are still substances being created and used that there is no test for, which has always been a big problem.

Q - In June the IOC ratified a new rule to keep drugs cheats out of the Olympics if they've been caught in the past?

A - I think it is a good move. It's a very strong dis-incentive to want to cheat, if you get caught, to face a two-year ban and miss the Olympic Games. I think it's a big penalty for an athlete to think that they'll miss an Olympic Games automatically as opposed to just coming back in two years.

Q - You were involved in setting up the first out-of-competition testing programme. What initiatives would you like to see?

A - Well, two of them I've seen already, with the IOC, going back to that decision to ban an athlete who has a two or more year suspension to eliminate them from the next Olympic Games. That's a positive. I think it was a positive also for the International Athletics Federation to deliver the gold medal to the British 4 x 400 metres team and forget about the eight-year statue of limitations because I think the issue is so much more important than that.

Those are two things, but, I think in the future, it's taken too long to find a test for growth hormone, testosterone, thyroid-drugs. I think they probably need to look more at short-acting stimulants. This is coming from someone who is not actively involved, but I have years of people from around the world calling me up telling me this isn't being done.

Q - How do the drug problems of today relate to the period in which you were competing?

A - When I was training, most of the guys trained naturally, especially in the sprints and hurdles. I think that the problem is that now, as opposed to taking an athlete who has just gotten out of college, who may need two years of experience and another year to get ready for the Olympics with a natural programme, it's easier for coaches - there's a financial incentive for coaches and for athletes, even for some of the sponsors and organisations - to have that happen in a much shorter timeframe.

When you use anabolics and other substances, you can start someone on a programme in August and in March or April the next year; they've effectively done three-years worth of work, if you've got a good coach and a good programme.

So, it's shortened the timespan for development, but it's also shortened the timespan for careers. You don't see people staying around for the super-long periods of time. In many cases you see people surging and then going away and then they surge again. You don't see the type of consistency that I was able to exhibit for example. I was being forced to run 2,000 miles a year and workout four to six hours a day.

Q - Do you believe that there will be athletes competing in Beijing who will be on drugs?

A - I don't want to comment on that, because obviously there's a possibility… but I'm not the person to say that no matter what happens that it's going to be a tainted Olympics. There might be some positive tests, like there are at every Olympic and sporting event, and probably always will be.

Q - Do you feel that the problems are as bad now as they've ever been, or is there some hope?

A - There's definitely hope in the future. There has been a lot more research done. A few groups around the world have been developing these tests and are fighting for their test to be the one that's based on the length of time that they can discover positives. There's always hope, but I think the main thing is to have an atmosphere amongst the trainers and coaches and managers and athletes, who would tend to go into the doping regimes, [to make sure they] don't feel comfortable. It's very important to not let there be a comfort zone that exists because of the failure of strong, solid testing or a failure of procedures or just wanting to look the other way. It's important just to do everything possible to not let there be a comfort level.

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Q - The Marion Jones story is particularly sad for Laureus. She was a winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award.

A - The Laureus World Sports Academy had meetings last October when the story really began to break. Shortly thereafter she made her admissions in court. We decided that as far as the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year Award 2000 was concerned, that she didn't deserve it anymore and we wanted to rescind the Award.

Q - When you heard her admission of what she'd done, did it surprise you?

A - Not much really surprises me in the world of doping over the last five to eight years. It's been really horrible in my sport of track and field - and cycling - and I think perhaps that those sports have been the absolute worst. I don't actually think it really could have gotten any worse. I think what we see publicly is the tip of an iceberg and within the last three months we've heard a lot of innuendo and stories about athletes. And track and field just doesn't stand right, so you know there is still more [to come].

Q - The people who competed against Marion Jones lost their own chance of personal success?.

A - I think that's an absolute tragedy. It really is, because those who were second and third only really got one shot, and you can take away a gold medal but you can never give it to someone else in the manner they should have received it.

Beyond that, from an ethical point of view, the damage that's been done by the big name athletes, who are caught cheating or are alleged to be - whether they've had a test or not - is when it comes to kids who are watching these things develop, whether it's the Tour de France or the Olympic Games, the World Championships or whatever it may be, I think it's really sad that these kids watch these events and then ask their mums and dads 'what are steroids' and 'why did they take them?' and 'why did they lose?' and have to deal with that.

Going further, I have a 12-year-old, going on 13, and I would hate to see him have to be a sportsperson in an atmosphere where the feeling is that you have to take drugs to win. I'll fight against that as long as I'm alive. That's a real tragedy to put kids in that situation and expect them to compete.

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Q - Laureus is ten years old, how would you assess its achievements?

A - We've gone from having six projects in four countries to having over 60 projects in over 30 countries, so we've grown a lot from the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation point of view. I think the Laureus World Sports Academy structure is there and I think everything has gone quite well over the last ten years.

Q - You have been Academy Chairman for those ten years, have you been surprised by the success?

A - Well, initially, when I went to the first Laureus in Monaco, I thought that I was going to a traditional Awards dinner - and that would be it. Little did I know it would grow, and it would have the potential that it has over the last ten years. In that respect I am a little surprised, but watching and working with the organisation has certainly been an experience.

Q - One of the reasons that Laureus is so successful is that great sportsmen like yourself, and other members of the Academy, have a desire to give something back?

A - I think that the power of the 45 Academy members working together is something very dynamic, and something very unique in the world of sports and philanthropy. The Academy members have been very gracious with their time and they make it a lot easier for me to manage the organisation on their behalf.

Q - Over the years, you have visited many Laureus projects. Are there any that have been especially memorable?

A - There have been lots of project visits which have been very memorable. But it's probably the one to Youth Sport Foyle when we went to Northern Ireland and we were there on 9/11, so we got stuck in Ireland for an extra few days. But being there, working with the kids, being sequestered with those kids was very interesting. Also the Mathare Youth Sports Association project in Kenya, which I think was, from a human point of view, an experience - to see the dynamism of the type of work they do and how successful they have been.

Q - You are effectively the captain of a great sports team with the members of the Laureus Academy. Do you enjoy being Chairman?

A - I really enjoy it, because I feel it's an honour, although there's a lot of work to be done behind the scenes. I do that work on behalf of the Academy members and make sure that they are going to have a good experience being involved with Foundation work, with any visits, anything we ask them to do. I think that's a major part of my job, more so than anything else.

Q - Nelson Mandela has recently celebrated his 90th birthday. He has been a great Patron of Laureus. He produced the Laureus' mantra - 'Sport has the power to change the world'.

A - Nelson Mandela came to our first Academy meeting, and it was a total surprise. I don't think anyone was really ready for that. The inspiration he's given our organisation, I don't think there's anyone who could have done it the way he has. The athletes, certainly, have taken that message forward over the last ten years, and people talk about it all the time. Whenever we show any audio-visuals, he's always there. He really speaks about what the true power of sports is and how someone in his position sees it. He's been the president of a country and it is interesting how they see the power of sport.

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