racewalking

Racewalking is a long-distance athletic event. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Stride length is reduced, so to achieve competitive speeds, racewalkers must attain cadence rates comparable to those achieved by Olympic 400-meter runners—and they must do so for hours at a time since the Olympic distances are 20 kilometres (12 mi) and 50 kilometres (31 mi).

Rules

Men's 20 km walk during the 2005 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Finland. The man on the far right has illegally lost contact with the ground.

There are two rules that govern racewalking.^[1][2] The first dictates that the athlete's back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact. The second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes over it. These rules are judged by the human eye, which creates controversy at today's high speeds. Athletes may sometimes lose contact for a few milliseconds per stride which can be caught on high-speed film, but such a short flight phase is undetectable to the human eye.

Athletes stay low to the ground by keeping their arms pumping low, close to their hips. If one sees a racewalker's shoulders rising, it may be a sign that the athlete is losing contact with the ground. What appears to be an exaggerated swivel to the hip is, in fact, a full rotation of the pelvis. Athletes aim to move the pelvis forward, and to minimize sideways motion in order to achieve maximum forward propulsion. Speed is achieved by stepping quickly with the aim of rapid turnover. This minimizes the risk of the feet leaving the ground. Strides are short and quick, with pushoff coming forward from the ball of the foot, again to minimize the risk of losing contact with the ground. World-class racewalkers (male and female) can average under seven and eight minutes per mile (or under four and five minutes per kilometre, respectively), in a 20 km (12.4 mile) racewalk.^[3]

Judges

There are judges on the course to monitor form. Three judges submitting "red cards" for violations results in disqualification. There is a scoreboard placed on the course so competitors can see their violation status. If the third violation is received, the chief judge removes the competitor from the course by showing a red paddle. For monitoring reasons, races are held on a looped course or on a track so judges get to see competitors several times during a race. A judge could also "caution" a competitor that he or she is in danger of losing form by showing a paddle that indicates either losing contact or bent knees. No judge may submit more than one card for each walker and the chief judge may not submit any cards; it is his or her job only to disqualify the offending walker. Disqualifications are routine at the elite level, such as the famous case of Jane Saville disqualified within sight of a gold medal in front of her home crowd in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Birth of sport

The start of the 3500 m walk final, 1908 Olympics.

Racewalking developed as one of the original track and field events of the first meeting of the English Amateur Athletics Association in 1880. The first racewalking codes came from an attempt to regularize rules for popular 19th century long distance competitive walking events, called Pedestrianism. Pedestrianism had developed, like footraces and horse racing, as a popular working class British and American pastime, and a venue for wagering. Walkers organised the first English amateur walking championship in 1866, which was won by John Chambers, and judged by the "fair heel and toe" rule. This rather vague code was the basis for the rules codified at the first Championships Meeting in 1880 of the Amateur Athletics Association in England, the birth of modern Athletics. With Football (soccer), Cricket and other sports codified in the 19th century, the transition from professional Pedestrianism to amateur racewalking was, while relatively late, part of a process of regularisation occurring in most modern sports at this time.

Olympics

Racewalking is an Olympic athletics (track and field) event with distances of 20 kilometers for both men and women and 50 kilometers for men only. Racewalking first appeared in the modern Olympics in 1904 as a half-mile walk in the 'all-rounder,' the precursor to the 10-event decathlon. In 1906, stand-alone 1,500m and 3,000m racewalks were added, and—excluding 1924—there has been at least one racewalk (for men) in every Olympics since. The women's racewalk became an Olympic event only in 1992, following years of active lobbying by female internationals. A World Cup in racewalking is held biennially, and racewalk events appear in the IAAF Athletics World Championships, the Commonwealth Games and the Pan American Games, among others.

High school

Racewalking is sometimes included in high school indoor and outdoor track meets. The distances walked tend to be relatively short, under two miles, with the 1500 m racewalk being the most commonly held event. Times under seven minutes (by girls) and under six (by boys) have been recorded for this distance.^[4]

Top performers

Men

20 km

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
1:16:43	Sergey Morozov	Russia	Saransk	June 8, 2008
1:17:16	Vladimir Kanaykin	Russia	Eisenhüttenstadt	September 28, 2007
1:17:21	Jefferson Pérez	Ecuador	Paris	August 23, 2003
1:17:22	Francisco Javier Fernández	Spain	Turku	April 28, 2002
1:17:25	Bernardo Segura	Mexico	Bergen	May 7, 1994
1:18:04	Bu Lingtang	China	Beijing	April 7, 1994
1:18:13	Pavol Blažek	Czechoslovakia	Hildesheim	September 9, 1990
1:18:20	Andrey Perlov	Soviet Union	Moscow	May 26, 1990
1:19:08	Mikhail Shchennikov	Soviet Union	Kiev	July 30, 1988
1:19:12	Axel Noack	East Germany	Karl-Marx-Stadt	June 21, 1987

50 km

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
3:34:13	Denis Nizhegorodov	Russia	Cheboksary	May 5, 2008
3:35:47	Nathan Deakes	Australia	Geelong	December 2, 2006
3:36:03	Robert Korzeniowski	Poland	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:36:04	Alex Schwazer	Italy	Rosignano Solvay	February 11, 2007
3:36:06	Yu Chaohong	China	Nanjing	October 22, 2005
3:36:13	Zhao Chengliang	China	Nanjing	October 22, 2005
3:36:20	Han Yucheng	China	Nanjing	February 27, 2005
3:36:42	German Skurygin	Russia	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:37:04	Alex Schwazer	Italy	Cheboksary	May 11, 2008
3:37:09	Alex Schwazer	Italy	Beijing	August 22, 2008

Women

20 km

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
1:24:50	Olimpiada Ivanova	Russia	Adler	March 4, 2001
1:25:18	Tatyana Gudkova	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:20	Olga Polyakova	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:29	Irina Stankina	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:59	Tamara Kovalenko	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:26:22	Wang Yan	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001
1:26:22	Yelena Nikolayeva	Russia	Cheboksary	May 18, 2003
1:26:23	Wang Liping	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001
1:26:28	Irina Pudovkina	Russia	Adler	March 12, 2005
1:26:31	Olga Kaniskina	Russia	Beijing	August 21, 2008
1:26:35	Liu Hongyu	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001

Notable racewalkers

In popular culture

Film

• Walk Don't Run: (Columbia Pictures Corporation) A 1966 Cary Grant movie, revolving around race walking at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
• Rael's Racewalker: (Acropolis Films, LLC) A 2005 documentary film adapted from footage of an actual World Masters Championship Racewalk event.
• Walkin' Free: Fictional, short film, soon to be adapted into a feature.
• Are We Done Yet?: starring Ice Cube and John C. McGinley (of Scrubs fame), the eccentric jack of all trades contractor who is also a former professional racewalker.

Television

• Malcolm in the Middle: Episode #70 (Malcolm Holds His Tongue). Hal takes up racewalking and discovers that one of the competitors had been cheating.

Video Games

• Homestarrunner.com: 50K Racewalker. A game where the player must racewalk 50 kilometers in order to win, requiring more than 20 hours to complete.^[5]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Race walking

• World Class Racewalking Dave McGovern's website
• Racewalk.com
• High School Race Walking
• Race Walking Record - News, photos and reports all about racewalking
• World Masters Race Walking Rankings
• Race Walk UK
• WALK! Magazine
• The Walking Site
• Racewalking with Mark
• D. Guebey walking pages