This is Elliott Denman’s column on Race Walking. A 1956 Olympian at the historic 50k RW distance, Elliott has been writing about race walking and other athletic events, including the Olympics and World Champs, for various publications and websites since 1990.
MARATHON RACEWALKS
NEXT ON GLOBAL AGENDA
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
The Lord has spoken…and many folks are paying close attention.
This Lord is Sebastian Coe, who, after winning two Olympic 1500-meter gold medals, serving as a Conservative member of Parliament for Falmouth-Camborne in Cornwall, accepting a Life Peerage in 2000, chairing the ultra-successful London 2012 Olympic Games, and now presiding over World Athletics, continues to say, “Just call me Seb, please.”
Of course, the sport known in the United States as track and field is “athletics” to the rest of the planet, but Seb’s wide horizons have never been limited to this single sport. He is truly a man for all seasons, and now his hat is in the ring in the upcoming vote to name the successor to Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee.
He convened with his WA Council teammates this week, and they made a heap of determinations relative to an array of major WA productions.
I may be one of the few global journalists genuinely interested in the racewalking division of our sport. Hey, colleagues, can you tell me about the event Norman Read, Don Thompson, and Abdon Pamich led the world? – so the recent declarations snared my special attention.
Most importantly, the racewalking distances at WA Championship events starting in 2026 have been determined. Adherents of the 50-kilometer event – on the Olympic program from Los Angeles 1932 to Tokyo/Sapporo 2021, 20 of them – were saddened when their event was chopped to 35K at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, then chopped out of the 2024 Paris Olympics altogether – and replaced by the gimmickry of the Marathon Walk Relay.
Curious as it was, and under significant prodding, that walk relay really got WA thinking,,, and thinking,
Unbeknown to most followers of the racewalking game, significant decisions were being made in that direction.
And they were made public by Coe and the Council a few days ago.
Officially stated, they are:
“The World Athletics Council also approved the introduction of new official senior road distances for race walking events to help put the remarkable achievements by athletes into context, make the events more relatable for fans, and encourage mass participation. The standard senior distances for race walking will, therefore, change from (a) 20km race walk to half marathon race walk (21.0975km); (b) 35km race walk to marathon race walk (42.195km); (c) st U20 level the men’s and women’s 10,000m race walks will be replaced by a 5,000m race walk event.
So now, all you racewalking fans out there, where do we stand??
Here is one guy’s take:
Switching to 42.195K is a brilliant idea. It is the perfect compromise between those who wanted to keep the 50K on the program forever and those who were satisfied with the 35 K.
Switching to 21.0975 is brilliant, too. It is just over 20K, a standard event at every significant global meet since 1956.
But 5,000m instead of 10,000 on the Junior level? Not such a great idea. Racewalking is basically a distance sport; 5,000 m is a relative sprint. Bring back the 10.
WA’s big hope is that these new marathon walks will get more global citizenry Interested, realizing what sensational athletes these world-class walkers must be. And that the most universal of all exercise forms is, of course,/of course, just plain walking.
An example: When France’s Yohan Diniz walked to his 50K world record of 3:32:33 at Zurich on August 15, 2014, it meant he was clipping off his 31.1 miles at 6:49 apiece and passing the 26-mile, 385-yard marathon distance in about 2:58.30.
And put that clocking on the results list of a typical big city marathon run- say
NYC 2024 – and he’d have placed about 2,200th out of 55,000-plus in the race.
How’s that for reminding the general population just how
superb a typical world-class racewalker must be?
Don’t like gimmicks? Remember that the first 42.195K marathon run – Windsor Castle to Shepherd’s Bush Olympic Stadium in London 1908 – was a gimmick. Not until the 1912 and 1920 Olympic marathons were in the books did the gimmicky 42.195 become standard.
However, one vital element was not included in Seb Coe’s Council announcement.
It did not declare that 42.195 racewalks for men and women would be staged at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games…or beyond. Or the 21.096s. It also gave no future status report on the Marathon Walk Relay—some loved it, others did not—as staged in Paris.
A bunch of these answers may be determined by the March 2025 election for the IOC presidency.
If Coe takes office, look for other innovations on the Olympic level.
Olympic total participation limits, which are now about 11,000 for all sports? Well, just raise them.
Limiting the Games to a single city or single nation? Actually, that’s already being done…in World Cup soccer. A lot beyond Southern California will host the 2028 Olympic events. All-new Olympic cricket will be on Long Island, New York, and soccer all over America. Etc etc.
New sports are clamoring to get in the door. Well, let a few more in. But don’t let the old ones hang out to dry, either.
Racewalking has been part of the Games since 1904. The racing distances have ranged from 880 yards (in the old, 10-event all-around event) to 1,500, 3,500, and 10,000 meters, then 10 miles on the track and 20K and 50K on the roads.
Change has been a semi-constant.
Now it’s marathon racewalking’s (and half-marathon’s) turn.
