oh my god racewalking is just ridiculous

You must be a hit at parties.

Runningart2004 wrote:

The sport emerged from a British culture of long-distance competitive walking known as pedestrianism....... Watching people walk was America's favorite spectator sport in the late 1800s.

Racewalking will always be a part of the Olympics, just like other old relics like the Pentathlon.

Love to see a 6-day event in the Olympics. Fejes and Kouros could battle it out.

Saudi is a place to make money and save. If you stay long enough you can save goodcoin and become wealthy in money or assets (multiple homes).

Thailand is a good place to retire because Thais are very easy going, polite and respectful. Everything you need in Thailand is available most at a fraction of the cost of the west. Little or no apparent age discrimination. Most farangs have young Thai wives who love the security the old timers from the west provide.

If you teach here the usual salary is around $1000 a month - enough to live on - away from Bangkok, which is basically a modernFirst World city with similar prices.

If you live in the provinces - much, much cheaper - but best to have a hobby (reading/sports) lest boredom and disillusionment present their not so nice faces.

I work in China. Vacation right now. Two month summer vacation from my Chinese university.

Thais aremore polite compared to Chinese. Living in China is replete with frustrations.

Ghost in Khon Khaen, Thailand

Bad Wigins wrote:

the olympics itself is doomed. It's not taken seriously as a sporting event anymore, only as a political pageant.

Is that why the Olympic stadium in London had the sort of attendance it did?

Attendance by who, track fans or hyped up patriots? No more than 5% were real track fans. Even at Historic Hayward Field the majority of the crowds are so ignorant that the field events are marked in imperial units.

As soon as the politics of it dies down, when countries get sick of wasting vast amounts of money to show themselves off to the world, the olympics will collapse on itself. The sooner the better. Look at the state of road racing, which is independent of the olympics, and track which is utterly dependent on it. Every sport the olympics takes over turns to dust.

Is Javelin a sport?

Is Long Jump a sport?

Is High Jump a sport?

No!!!!

These are events in Track and Field.

That's what race walking is.

Ghost wrote:

Top race walkers are fine athletes and most top class walkers are much more athletic overall compared to distance runners.

Elite race walkers train up to 8 hours a day between walking, running and other forms of cross training.

Yohan Deniz - the French World record holder in the 50km walk incorporated a lot of swimming in his training regimen during the last year.

Elite race walkers have higher V02 max scores than elite runners. Walkers, cross country skiiers and rowers have the highest scores.

If you look at the bodies of elite race walkers they invariably possess six packs and well defined pectorals. Many distance runners don't have those features.

An elite race walker capable of 18:40 (5000) and 1:16 (20km) could run 14:30/30:00/65:00 with minimal pure running training.

Ghost in Khon Khaen, Thailand

This^

Racewalkers actually have huge aerobic capacity, certainly when compared with distance runners, who are nowhere near top of the aerobic food chain.

Even if you suppose a runner does 20 miles a day (which vanishingly few actually do consistently), that is "only" around 2.5 hours a day.

That is a simply piddling amount of aerobic training time compared with XC skiers, distance swimmers, cyclists, and yes walkers, all of whom are the runner's aerobic superiors.

It's not the fault of runners; running training is limited by physical breakdown and injury in a way these other sports just aren't.

Stat man! wrote:

http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2012/USA-50-km-Race-Walk-Championships/Results.aspx

There were 10 people in the 2012 US Olympic Trials for the 50km walk. Ten!

Pathetically non-competitive event!

Compared with what?

The U.S. Olympic Trials marathon, with dozens of also-rans literally miles off the pace, some of whom have never completed a marathon? (Including their inevitable trials DNF?)

When I clicked on here I thought you would be talking about the men's 5K

Much Happiness wrote:

This thread makes me so happy.Race walking is the tallest midget competition of track and field.

"I'm not so good at running, but I can walk/jog or wog like the wind, please respect me."

Pretty big stone for someone to throw from the glass house of a distance running forum. You see that, right?

To everyone else, you are the "I can't run fast, but gee can I keep going" crowd.

Just a little insecure runt collectively looking for a littler runt to bully. Pathetic.

World's silliest sport wrote:

So elite male race walkers possess the running talents of elite female runners. That's NOT impressive!

Despite training 8 hours a day and having high VO2, that's the best they can run! Pathetic! Clearly, they come from the least talented pool of athletes in track and field.

There are probably fewer than 500 race walkers on the entire planet. Regional high school cross country championships have more competitors than race walking has on the entire planet.

What is the largest number of finishers ever in a race walk? Under 100 probably.

What's the largest number of finishers ever in a running race? 80,000!

In one running race there are more competitors than race walking has had in every single race walking event ever held combined!

Yes, but race walking of various distances has been an event in every Olympics except 1896, 1900, 1904, and 1928. The 50K race walk was added in 1932. The 20K race walk in 1956. Olympic events with that kind of longevity are difficult to remove. Still, me no fan of the race walk.

Ghost wrote:

I love watching race walking (elite level). It is fascinating. There is always a lot of drama, especially because many walkers are right at the limit - and if they 'run' they get 2 warnings...third warning is dq! This is what makes it so exciting.

Ghost in Khon Khaen, Thailand

No. Seriously, no. They're not "at the limit" of running. They *are* airborne. Watch any race walk event in slo motion and every single one of them without exception is airborne. Even the pictures on the wikipedia article show them airborne.

The only drama is which participant will the judges arbitrarily cite as being more airborne than the other airborne walkers.

I follow a lot of sports and people often wonder why I sometimes spend hours watching cycling or marathons.

And even I can't stand racewalking, it's just too ridiculous. And I do "understand" the sport, but every single athlete is airborne, like Ghost already pointed out. Plus the whole body movement is just weird. I cringe every time I see it on TV, the same way I cringe at slow-mo replays of triple jumpers hammering their knees.

You are spot on. In the 50km walk when Toth (Slovak winner) sped up from 4.25 kms to around 4.15 per km - I was nervous the judge might out him for 'lifting' (failure to maintain at least one foot on ground and bent knees). But Toth is considered a pure stylist and does not often get dqd.

Barrondo (Guatemala- and tipped to medal by the cognoscenti) was dqd at around 2.24" in the race. This was a mistake because stylewise he was no different than others who had no warnings or just one warning. If a walker gets 2 warnings- he often gets tense and the incurs a dq on the third.

No matter how well prepared there is no guarantee a walker will finish because the eyes of the judges can destroy a good day.

Ghost in Khon Khaen, Thailand

bbbvvvvgffffgvg wrote:

You must be a hit at parties.

You must be a prick everywhere you go.