Greg Foster (hurdler)

Gregory Foster (born August 4, 1958) is a retired American hurdler. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He 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.

Greg Foster
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1984 Los Angeles 110 m hurdles
World Championships
1983 Helsinki 110 m hurdles
1987 Rome 110 m hurdles
1991 Tokyo 110 m hurdles
Goodwill Games
1986 Moscow 110 m hurdles
World Indoor Championships
1991 Sevilla60 m hurdles

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.[1]

Failed drug test

Foster was suspended from athletics for almost six months in 1990 after testing positive for pseudo ephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine.[2]

Retirement health issues

Starting in the year 2015 until January 2020, Foster had been suffering from Amyloidosis, a rare, life-threatening disease that does considerable damage to the heart. On January 18, Foster underwent heart transplant surgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital.

Foster has dedicated his career to health and wellness and wants to share his story to help others who may be facing similar circumstances while raising awareness of the importance of organ donation. Foster is particularly focused on reaching minority communities to provide encouragement for their overall health and wellness and to stress the importance of organ donation.

See also

References
  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-26. Retrieved 2011-12-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Foster Suspended After Positive Test". The New York Times. 1990-04-19. Archived from the original on 2007-09-19. Retrieved 2007-01-10.


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