Gregory (“Greg”) Foster (born August 4, 1958) was an American hurdling athlete….who is the only person in the history of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics to win three consecutive 110 meter hurdling titles (1983, 1987, and 1991). He was the 1981 IAAF World Cup and the 1991 World Indoor hurdling champion. As well as his international titles, Foster was twice NCAA outdoor champion (1978 and 1980) in the 110 meter hurdles and was the NCAA 200 meter dash champion in 1979. He won 10 U.S. national titles…. four of them outdoors in the 110 meter hurdles (1981, 1983, 1986, and 1987)….and six indoors, in the 60 yard hurdles (1983, 1984, 1985), 55 meter hurdles (1987, 1988) and 60 meter hurdles (1991). He broke the indoor world record for the 50 meter hurdles in 1985 (6.35 seconds) and tied that mark in 1987. He also broke the 60 meter hurdle indoor world record in 1987 with a time of 7.36. He was the American Record Holder in the 110 meter hurdles at 13.22 seconds while competing for UCLA….second at the time only to Cuba’s world record holder Alejandro Casañas. His personal best time for the 110 meter hurdles was 13.03, run at the Weltklasse Zürich meet in 1981 in which Renaldo Nehemiah became the first man the break the 13 second barrier with his 12.93. This once again made Foster the second-fastest hurdler of all time. Foster was ranked in the top ten hurdlers in the world for 15 out of 16 years 1977 to 1992. Five of those years, he was ranked number one, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1991…as Foster won the gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
The men’s long jump competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California had a of 31 participating athletes….with two qualifying groups….and the final held on August 6, 1984. While criticized in the media, Carl Lewis had the event won with his first and only attempt….as the rest was just a formality as he relaxed and watched the best in the world take their best shots….but none could come within a foot of Lewis….which allowed him to focus on the 200 meters final later that afternoon.
To that point in time, Lewis’s one jump equaled the tenth best jump in history….and of those ten….seven had been by Lewis. Carl Lewis had one jump in Los Angeles….and it equaled the winning jump 4 years earlier by Lutz Dombrowski….whose East German team was part of the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott….and there was one jump by USA Larry Myricks…..who was in this 1984 Olympics competition….but was not showing signs of jumping his best….and the last of the best 10 jumps in history was the unworldly Olympic and World Record by Bob Beamon set 16 years earlier.
