The World's Best

On the following pages, an Olympic portfolio by Annie Leibovitz

Hurdler Edwin Noses

6 ft. 1 3/4 in., 170 lb. Born: August 31, 1955 Dayton, Ohio

400-Meter Hurdles

The event features a 400-meter course with hurdles 36 inches high at 35meter intervals. Edwin Moses covers it at about 19 mph, hurdles and all—a pace that would finish a marathon in an hour and a half. It's the only race Moses runs, and he's the best in the world—ranked No. 1 in seven of the past eight years, with a string to date of 87 victories, no defeats. His goal, for now, is a hundred victories. He says: "What I try to do is clear up the mistake that's costing me maybe twoor threehundredths of a second, and if I can do that over the course of ten hurdles, that's twotenths of a second right there." Mind the hundredths, and the tenths take care of themselves.

DRIVING THE SOFT MACHINE

DRIVING THE SOFT MACHIN

Cyclist Connie Carpenter

5 ft. 10 in., 130 lb. Born: February 26, 1957 Madison, Wisconsin

70-Kilometer Individual Road Race

This summer, for the first time since the Games were revived in 1896, the Olympics will include a women's cycling event—a 70kilometer individual road race. For Carpenter it should be like a Sunday drive. Just a week before the 1976 Olympic trials, Connie Carpenter, then an 18-year-old speed skater, broke her ankle. "I was in really good form and had an injury that prohibited me from making the team but did not prohibit me from cycling. I made the transition that spring, and the first year I won two national titles. It's been uphill ever since." Carpenter has been a consistently outstanding performer: in a single season in 1981 she won the Coors International Classic, a medal in

the World Championship, and three national titles. Last year she set a world record of 3:49:53 in the 3,000-meter pursuit, averaging 27.7 mph with a track machine, on which the rider can't coast or change gears.

DRIVING THE SOFT MACHINE

Diver Greg Louganis

5 ft. 9 in., 155 lb. Born: January 29, 1960 San Diego, California

10-Meter Platform and 3-Meter Springboard

He's the old man of the sport, with a silver medal from the '76 Olympics. But few younger divers have as much guts and grace. A dive's degree of difficulty is crucial to the scoring, and Louganis is famous for the most difficult. Ranked No. 1 worldwide in both events, Louganis says he is "terrified of heights" (diving from a IOmeter platform is like jumping off a three-story building), but adds, "I'm okay as long as I know there's water underneath. " More than okay: he's the first and only male to win world championships at both heights and to score more than 700 points (752) on the 3-meter. He says: "I think one thing that really helps me is my dance background because in dance you have to be strong and graceful. I don't view my diving as mechanical. I view it as more like a choreographed piece. " More like a masterpiece.