How do people become pro race walkers?

A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B.

The youth track club that practices at the high school where I coach (i coach pole vault) has a few kids who do race walk.

It used to drive me crazy because I have zero respect for race walking. But then one day i noticed that one of my totally hopeless pole vault kids who was always super frustrated with how awful she was at pole vault could be in the mix at race walking and was very happy to not be the absolute worst at something.

So now I still have zero respect for race walking, but keep my annoyance to myself in front of the kids. In the city I'm in, the misfits and unathletic seem to have found a place where they can feel like decent athletes, even if it is only by virtue of nobody else doing it.

I have no idea but I'm watching it now. I thought there would be a heavily populated thread here, analyzing the race.

I didn't know anything about race walking until I attended the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. It was an incredibly popular event among locals because Spaniards were expected to fare extremely well. They did, winning a gold in a men's event and with another Spaniard disqualified late in the race while in silver medal position. I was shocked at how much TV coverage the walking received. They loved walking and also team handball.

Those Games had one walking disqualification after another in the late going. That's why it was so memorable for me. You couldn't take anything for granted no matter what position they were in or how late it was. I remember a Polish guy was disqualified for lifting but then went on to win several subsequent Olympic golds and titles everywhere else.

Most memorable of all, though, was the women's race. It was the Olympic debut. A Russian was leading but it seemed blatant that she was cheating. Somehow they allowed her to cross the finish line as winner. Nobody in my group of watchers could believe it. She was seemingly sprinting down the stretch. Then the officials properly corrected matters after she finished by asserting that she received a final form violation before crossing the line and therefore was disqualified. That was huge news all over Spanish TV coverage and sports tabloids.

The humorous aspect of that episode was that the Russian actually switched from walking to the marathon a few years later and had a good career, winning several meaningful races in Europe in respectable times.

200-220 steps/minute for 20 Km or 30 Km requires quick reflexes stamina, a unique athletic combination.

And a willingness to look ridiculous.

gay, the word you look for is gay

No misfits in running. Because every kid growing up dreams about running in circles around the track.

Trackfanny wrote:

In the city I'm in, the misfits and unathletic seem to have found a place where they can feel like decent athletes, even if it is only by virtue of nobody else doing it.

Kid running after kipchoge wrote:

How in the world does one get to be a race-walker? Those pro race walkers used to race walk as kids? Did you ever hear of junior race walking? Or are these guys with good stamina who can't breakthrough in running or other stamina sports, and decide to be race walkers?

I don't think there are many "pro" race walkers. Only a handful in the world are sponsored. It's very rare to have a race walker that doesn't work a job along with training.

My wife made a junior world team in race walk. Race walk is a track event in two states, Maine and New York. So, many kids get their start in these states, with a few clubs scattered across the country. I know near Chicago there is a youth track club that race walks called the Elgin Sharks. There is a group in Ohio and another in California. Other than that, just the NAIA colleges that offer it.

It's also a good way to get NAIA scholarship. If you're a male race walker, you just have to make nationals and it's an almost guaranteed All American award depending on the year. So, coaches value these national points. When you see NAIA national results, many of those athletes are near full rides. When I was in college, we had a few race walkers in our conference. and every one of them had $15k or more in athletic scholarship. Helps get a solid education for a good price.

Right now, there is a group in California taking 30:00 10k runners and turning them into race walkers. It's producing good results. Nobody is good the first few months because it's a completely different feeling and muscle group than running. The aerobic ability usually transfers over if you can get the proper form. I've tried it with proper form and it sucks. It's also a good form of exercise that doesn't put a ton of stress on your joints, especially the knees. I've actually heard many stories of good runners who were injury prone and could race walk while they were injured from running and just got good at it.

Also think, if a race walker is doing a 10 mile walk, it's like running 15 miles if you go by time. The races also take longer, so endurance is crucial.

As a respectable runner, with trials potential, I definitely respect race walkers. Especially collegiate and above. They train just as hard as runners and take a lot of crap at the same time. It just gets a bad reputation at the middle school and high school level because many coaches stick the athletes with less running potential into race walk. The ones who stick with it beyond high school can develop into good athletes.

The French Canadian walker, Bilodeau, was a former 1.53, 800 runner, and 2.30, 1000m, turned triathlete, then 50km race walker, 3.53.

I'm entirely serious here: I think some kids start with it when the lifeguard at the pool says "no running!"--so they walk fast instead. With some kids it's immediately clear that they're able to do that a whole lot faster than others. I don't think that was my own start as a walker, though; it was more because, for years, I was younger and smaller than the other kids in my grade--so just walking around with them, I had to develop some turnover.

Later, I became an actual racewalker when I couldn't run anymore. I sucked as a runner and kinda sucked as a walker; the guys who were *good* walkers tended to be good runners, too, but often seemed to be good all-around athletes--they typically were more mesomorphic than most long-distance runners.

Don DeNoon was on at least one Olympic team in the walks then went on to coach runners and walkers, Mary Decker for a short time. He told people who wanted to start walking exactly the thing you said about lifeguard thing.