2 Football Players, 3 Hurdlers Seek Spots on ’92 Bobsled Team : Olympics: Herschel Walker and Willie Gault of NFL and Edwin Moses, Roger Kingdom and Renaldo Nehemiah hope to win first U.S. medal since 1956.

NFL players Herschel Walker and Willie Gault and three champion hurdlers will try to make the U.S. bobsled team for the 1992 Winter Olympics, according to a published report.

In today’s editions of The National, Gault said he, Walker, Edwin Moses, Roger Kingdom and Renaldo Nehemiah will begin serious bobsled training after the 1990 NFL season.

Gault, a former hurdler who plays for the Los Angeles Raiders, made the U.S. bobsled team in 1988 but didn’t compete in Calgary because of an intra-squad controversy.

The United States hasn’t won an Olympic medal in bobsled since placing third in 1956. Gault said he wants to improve America’s poor showing and bring more black athletes into the sport.

“Before the ’88 Games, I became aware of the color factor in the Winter Olympics,” Gault said. “I raised the issue by going out for the team. And when people see athletes like Herschel Walker and Edwin Moses, it will encourage more minorities to get involved.”

Moses won the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, while Kingdom won the 110-meter hurdles at the 1984 and 1988 Games. Kingdom recently broke Nehemiah’s 8-year-old world record in the 110-meter hurdles.

A spokesman for Gault, Travis Clark, said the five athletes will compete for three of the four “pusher” spots on the bobsled team. Clark said the two athletes who are beaten out will be alternates on the team.