Moses Won’t Try to Make Olympic Team

Edwin Moses, a two-time gold medalist in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, will not attempt to earn a berth on his fifth U.S. Olympic team because of an ankle injury, he said Tuesday.

He would have had to qualify for the June 19-28 U.S. Olympic track and field trials by Saturday, but he said that he will not enter a meet today at Indianapolis because he has been unable to train at full speed since April.

“The thing that really bothers me is that I think I would have had a chance to make the team and possibly could have done something at the Olympics,” said Moses, 36, who has not run competitively since winning the bronze medal in 1988 at Seoul. “But this is like having a flat tire. For me to run now would be asking for trouble.

“It’s too bad, but I’ve had such a great career that I can’t be all that disappointed.”

Moses, who lives in Newport Beach, is the world record-holder in the intermediate hurdles and won gold medals in 1976 and 1984. He also made the 1980 U.S. team that did not compete in the Moscow Olympics because of a political boycott.

He stopped short Tuesday of announcing his retirement, saying that he hopes to return to the track this summer in European invitational meets.