Edwin Moses feels at home being from somewhere else

 ATLANTA (AP) -- In a city where more than half the people come from somewhere else, Edwin Moses is the perfect person to fit the bill as Atlanta's greatest Olympian.
 After all, he's from somewhere else.
 Born in Ohio, Moses gained athletic prominence in the 1970s while attending Morehouse College, a small, historically black school in downtown Atlanta, on an academic scholarship.
 "I wasn't good enough for an athletic scholarship," he said.
 Moses was still in college when he won his first gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Two years later, he graduated with a degree in business and left the city because of a lack of adequate training facilities.
 "It was very difficult to get exposure for my event," he said. "There just wasn't any interest in world-class athletics, whether you were a champion or not."
 Moses lived for the next 16 years in southern California, establishing himself as the greatest 400 hurdler in history. He won 122 consecutive races over a 10-year period and a second gold medal at the Los Angeles Games.
 Two years ago, retired from track, Moses moved back to Atlanta.
 "You can get more for your money here in terms of real estate," said Moses, a financial planner who knows a little something about money. "I like the town. It's very relaxed. You don't have a lot of hustle and bustle like you did in California."
 Still looking fit though his hair and beard are tinged with gray, the 41-year-old Moses remains active in the sports world, serving as the athletes' liaison to the International Olympic Committee and recently becoming president of the International Amateur Athletic Association.
 In the first role, he was instrumental in getting the Olympic marathon switched from the afternoon, with its blistering heat, to the cooler morning hours. In the latter, he hopes to further something that has been his obsession: education.
 "Education has been the key to my whole life," he said. "If I had not gotten a scholarship and gone to Morehouse, I wouldn't be here today. No one would know who I was."
 He talks with passion about all the children who grow up in broken homes, dealing with drugs, gangs and poverty. He talks cynically about the fancy marketing techniques that cause youngsters to put more emphasis on $200 jackets rather than education.
 "It's very unlikely that any of them are going to be superstars in sports compared to the chances of getting an education and being a successful person in almost any career, whether it be chemistry, physics or whatever," Moses said.
 That's the message he heard from his parents. Both were active with the school board back in Dayton, Ohio, where Moses' mother was a reading teacher. In fact, young Edwin bought his first pair of running shoes while in Paris on a trip with the French club.
 "I grew up in the type of family where there was an expectation to do well," he said. "It was mandatory for us to join a bok club and read five to 10 books during the summer and go to summer schools. It was a matter of keeping us involved in activities that kept us stimulated."
 Moses has been mentioned prominently as the most likely person to carry to the torch on its final leg to the Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony July 19.
 "I've heard that so much, I don't even listen to it," he said. "That's something other people will have to decde. But people all over the country have been telling me they think I ought to do it. If that's the way they feel, I appreciate that."
 So, would he like to carry the torch?
 "Well, I'm very, very busy right now," Moses said coyly.
 One thing Moses doesn't miss is the competition. He ruptured a disc in his back in 1986 and spent the last three years of his career in excruciating pain. He didn't find out until 1993, long after his retirement, what the problem was.
 Moses hopes the Olympics will leave a legacy in Atlanta.
 "Hopefully, we'll be able to keep track and field alive in the community," he said. "Even though they're taking the track out of the Olympic Stadium, I hope to still have some meets here."