What happened to Greg Foster? American Olympic medalist passes away at age 64

The 1984 Olympic silver medalist Greg Foster is no more. The three-time world champion in the 110-meter hurdles passed away at the age of 64.

The news of Foster's demise was shared on the official Twitter account of USA Track & Field.

"USATF is saddened to hear of the passing of Greg Foster, one of America’s hurdle greats."

According to NBC Sports, Greg Foster passed away in his sleep at his residence on February 19.

After being diagnosed with amyloidosis in 2016 and receiving chemotherapy, Foster underwent a heart transplant in 2020.

Ato Boldon, a Trinidadian four-time Olympic medalist, first broke the news on his Twitter on February 20th.

---

Fans share condolences for Greg Foster's demise

Foster won six national 110-meter hurdles titles, including the silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles between 1981 and 1991, and the gold medal at the first three outdoor world championships in 1983, 1987, and 1991.

Fans shared their condolences for Greg Foster.

---

Greg Foster's life and career

The American hurdler was born on August 4, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. In the history of the IAAF World Championships, Foster was the only athlete to win three consecutive 110-meter Hurdle titles. His first title came in 1983 followed by 1987 and the last in 1991.

Interestingly, Foster was also the IAAF World cup winner in 1981 and World Indoor Hurdling Champion in 1991.

Foster earned the first of his three gold medals in the 110-meter hurdles competition at the first World Athletics Championships held in Helsinki in 1983.

Later, in 1987 and 1991, he won gold in Rome and Tokyo. The same year, he won his third 110-meter hurdles gold, Foster won the world indoor 60-meter hurdles title in Seville.

In an event in which Renaldo Nehemiah became the first athlete to break 13 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, Greg Foster ran a personal best of 13.03 seconds in August 1981, coming in second to Nehemiah.

He won Olympic gold in 1984 in Los Angeles when he narrowly lost to fellow American Roger Kingdom by three-hundredths of a second.

Foster at the XXIII Summer Olympics

Foster was in the top 12 of the men's 110-meter hurdles season top list for 18 straight years from 1977 to 1994, thanks to his exceptional consistency. He topped that list five times, and after fracturing his arm in 1988, he still managed to come in at No. 12 on the list. In an effort to reach the squad for the Seoul Olympics, he even competed in races at the 1988 US Olympic Trials while wearing a cast on his broken arm.

Foster set a new indoor 50-meter hurdles world record in 1985 (6.35 seconds), and he later equaled it in 1987. In 1987, he also ran a 7.36-second world record for the indoor 60-meter hurdles. While racing for UCLA, he held the American record for the 110-meter hurdles with a timing of 13.22 seconds, second only to Alejandro Casaas of Cuba, who held the world record at the time.

In 1990, Greg Foster was given a six-month sports ban after testing positive for ephedrine, which he claimed was in his asthma medicine.

Foster stopped competing in 1996, and in 1998, the USATF put him in its Hall of Fame as a result of his many accomplishments.